


Chasing After You - Prologue Arc

by The Flare Blade (guedesbrawl)



Series: Because I Love You [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, Character Study - Hyuuga Hinata, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Family Drama, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Politics, Risky Plans, Same goes for rating, Self-Esteem Issues, Shyness, Social Anxiety, Some tags are for the series as a whole, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Training, geopolitics, slow pacing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:36:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 32,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guedesbrawl/pseuds/The%20Flare%20Blade
Summary: Hiruzen knew that Tazuna's request was much more dangerous and important than it first appeared to be. He needed experienced ninja for the mission, but his hands were tied because of politics... until he sees a loophole. Using an educational project as cover, he will send two teams to Wave! A Naruto retelling with Hinata as a main character but with canon teams.(The Prologue arc focuses on elaborating on everything I mentioned above, as well as showing how the teams interact with each other prior to the mission to Wave. A good chunk of this arc will be Kakashi and Kurenai spending some time with each other's teams and fixing the grave problems they perceive, but the teams will meet up at the end of the arc too.)





	1. The Professor's Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Before you begin reading this fic, there's a little thing you should know.
> 
> I have a few topics I'd like to talk about regarding this story... such as why I have decided to write it, about the pacing, original characters, fundamental changes to the plot, my update schedule, action scenes, use of Japanese, future revisions of posted chapters, fixing mistakes and etc... it's a lot.
> 
> However, there is no real need for me to inflate this chapter's word count with that, so everything is neatly organized in my profile. I really recommend reading it at some point soon if you decide that you want to keep reading this fic in the future; there's a table of contents there so you can find and skip parts that do not interest you, if you wish. There's no need to read any of it before you begin reading the fic itself, but it will do you good.
> 
> ...Well, by profile I mean my FF.net profile. It's a big thing that I update often, so for simplicity's sake I'm not doing a second profile. Here's the link: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7170011/The-Flare-Blade
> 
> You'll note that the FF.net version already has 20 chapters. However, it is undergoing a major revision process. In this site, I'll only post the revised chapters as I get to making them, and I'll also exclude my notes on changed content prior to the revision (I'll keep the revision number consistent with FF.net though).
> 
> Apologies ahead of time if I do some wonky stuff in this site, as I'm still getting used to the different environment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, and welcome to the first book of the story, "Chasing After You," which revolves around the Part 1 of Naruto.
> 
> As the summary stated, Hinata will be a main character this time around. To explain why she gets that opportunity in this retelling, I'll need to talk about the changes I did to the Wave mission and Hiruzen's educational project. Both of those things will end up having big impacts on the story, so I devoted our prologue to talk about them, and a bit to indirectly introduce you to Hinata's character and past.
> 
> If I may be so bold, I request that you stick with the fic at least until you've read the entire prologue arc (Chapter 1-6). In this arc, I'll show you where I intend to take the main characters, and you'll also have a taste of my style and how I handle things like humor, drama, friendships/romance, character development, action sequences and other important aspects of the story going forward.
> 
> The key events of this prologue arc happen in Chapter 4 and 6. I believe that only after all of that you'll have seen enough to safely determine if it's worth continuing reading or not—though I thank you for time and patience nonetheless.
> 
> Finally, a couple warnings about this chapter:
> 
> *The existence of Hiruzen's educational project is more important than what it actually is about in the first half, thanks to what I already mentioned in the summary. The project will only be explained in the second half.
> 
> *I used the present tense in a few moments of the chapter despite sticking to the past tense for 99% of the story—I felt it was justifiable and more suitable for those specific parts, so I apologize for the tense shifts.
> 
> [Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. I know disclaimers are legally useless, but I still think this deserves to be said... once, and only once. I'll put another disclaimer if I get the rights of the series, ok? (Spoiler alert: Never.)]

"For someone to be a ninja, they must be able to put their life on the line for the sake of the village."

This is a lesson taught to all academy students of Konoha before they even come close to becoming genin and something they simply get used to as time passes. When a ninja gets a new mission, they know they might not be coming back from it... and while the concept is extremely scary at first, it eventually becomes nothing more than routine; it's something that is easy to accept and live with. After all, danger has always been part of the job description.

Whenever a ninja from Konoha enters the Hokage's office to learn about a new assignment, they see their Kage, but not just that. Behind the person wearing the white robes and a red hat with the kanji for "Fire," they would find multiple large windows, and from beyond the transparent glass they would be able to view the entire village.

The First Hokage of Konoha, Hashirama Senju, believed that this sight would motivate his shinobi to do their best, not only for the village that they are fighting to protect, but also for their loved ones that waited for their safe return. It would remind his shinobi of what was at stake for every mission they took and why they had to risk their lives every day… of why their pain and sacrifices were worth it in the end.

This impact was something that a young Hiruzen Sarutobi experienced first-hand, but many decades later, now sitting on the blue chair on the other side of the Hokage's desk— _his_  desk—he couldn't help but see things from a second perspective as well.

As Hiruzen came to understand not too soon after assuming the office as the Sandaime Hokage, being a Kage means that one, at times, needs to look at a mission scroll, realize that whoever is assigned to that mission is practically guaranteed to die during or after the mission... and still carefully construct a team to take the job. It doesn't end there, of course, because he would need to brief his men about what their suicidal mission is, fully aware that they would probably never see their village, families and friends again.

After all, while blood would be in his hands regardless of his decision, he is still the one sending them to their supposed deaths. Just like every time he killed an enemy when he was still an active ninja, the guilt never goes away. It actually gets worse… but all he could do was hold on to the Will of Fire and trust that his men would return, even if a more realistic side of him told him otherwise. Usually that side ended up proven wrong, especially now that they weren't fighting a war, but not always.

_'I am far too old for the weight of this hat...'_  he lamented, taking a drag from his pipe. One look at the man and you would think that, considering his white hair and wrinkled face, Hiruzen was absolutely right. One as old as he was shouldn't be spending his last years locked up in an office dealing with mountains of paperwork and the impossible choices he needed to make on a daily basis, but thanks to the untimely death of his successor, no one else was able to protect his home.

No matter how tired he was, he needed to do it—for the village.

The sound of someone sighing snapped him from his thoughts.

"He's taking way too long," the person spoke in a feminine voice.

Hiruzen had to chuckle at the person across his desk. "Patience. You know how he is. Twenty minutes is actually not too bad for his standards—not yet, at least."

"I suppose you're right…" she mumbled under her breath. "It could be worse."

The woman in front of him was Kurenai Yuhi, a young jonin and the village's most skilled user of genjutsu. Her black, messy hair and striking crimson eyes made for a beautiful visage, despite the impatient scowl marring her features. She wore a red mesh armor blouse that only had one sleeve (on the right) and a thick, sleeveless dress with a design that resembled wide white bandages with black thorn patterns, positioned just right to expose a little of her cleavage covered by the black mesh armor underneath. While her dress only resembled bandages, the ones covering her hands and forearms were genuine.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait for much longer. Barely a minute later, a man entered through the open window. He was dressed in the traditional blue jonin uniform of Konoha under his green flak jacket, with the headband tilted diagonally to cover his left eye. Between that and the mask over his face, he made for a mysterious figure. Despite his aforementioned chronic tardiness and his disheveled silver hair that spiked upwards, he still gave the aura of an experienced and dangerous ninja—as far as Konoha went, few individuals deserved that description more than him.

"Sorry I'm late, Hokage-sama," he said, before giving a lame excuse that Hiruzen tuned out completely. Kakashi Hatake never changed. Always late, always with an improbable excuse. Hiruzen had long since accepted his incorrigibleness, but Kurenai gladly took the chance to chastise him.

"Honestly, Kakashi. Would it kill you to be considerate, for once? I have a team to get back to."

"I suppose you do," he said with a subtle shrug before taking a little book out of a pocket. A  _porn_  book, which he proceeded to read despite being in Hiruzen's presence.

Seeing Kurenai's eye twitch at the sight of Icha Icha Paradise—a book Hiruzen was more familiar with than he could admit aloud—he cleared his throat to give start their meeting.

"Kurenai, Kakashi... I called you two today because I have an important mission for both of your teams. But before anything else, I must know one thing." His gaze fell onto Kakashi, whose head was buried in the book. "Is Team 7 finally prepared for a C-rank mission?"

"Well... they are still not quite where I want them to be in terms of teamwork," Kakashi confessed, almost apologetic. "Still, they are starting to tolerate each other a little, and at least a couple things about teamwork are finally getting through their thick heads… so I believe that they can handle a C-rank." He sighed. "Finally…"

The Hokage had to smile. He could still remember the tantrum one Naruto Uzumaki threw a week prior, once he had enough of how mundane and boring the D-rank missions were after a nasty encounter with a certain unruly cat. Hiruzen was sure the boy had insisted on it every single day afterward.

"I'm glad to hear that they are warming up to each other. Kurenai has already confirmed to me that her team is also ready for a C-rank mission yesterday," the woman nodded at that, "and I happen to have one that I want to assign to both of your teams tomorrow."

He grabbed a scroll that was on his desk and offered it to Kurenai. "The client is named Tazuna, an accomplished bridge builder from the Land of Waves. He's requesting a team of shinobi to escort him back to his home country and offer him protection while he builds a bridge that will connect the island to the continent. The motive behind his request is that he fears bandits might ambush him before he gets home or once the bridge is close to our country's coast. He is offering enough payment to justify a C-rank mission."

Kurenai briefly scanned the scroll, confirming all of the information that the Hokage had just shared with them before looking curiously at her boss as she passed the scroll to Kakashi. "This mission isn't complex enough to warrant two genin teams," she stated, one eyebrow raised in suspicion. "Does this have something to do with the post-academy educational project you mentioned to us in the previous meeting, Hokage-sama? For our genin teams?"

Hiruzen's features darkened. "Indeed. As the mission is somewhat time-consuming, it will give you ample time for you two to start the deeper courses on ninjutsu and genjutsu that the project mentioned, even if only for half of the genin in question."

Kakashi and Kurenai both tensed. Between how their teams hadn't been called for this meeting and the grave expression that their Hokage wore, they now knew for sure that the next part would not leave them happy.

"However, that's just on paper." Hiruzen leaned forward, elbows on the desk and hands clasped in front of his face. "The client lied about the mission's parameters. This is, in reality, an extremely important A-rank mission. And with my educational project acting as a cover, I'm giving this A-rank mission to you, two of my strongest shinobi, under the guise of the jonin-sensei that are accompanying two teams of genin on a C-rank mission."

Kurenai's eyes widened. The thought of bringing her team to a dangerous A-rank mission—of possibly getting them killed—made her blood run cold. She bit her lip, stopping herself from demanding an explanation. Not only was Hiruzen her superior, but she trusted him. Surely he had a good reason to endanger mere children like that.

Kakashi, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to speak his mind since his questions were on the practical side. "Why, exactly, is this mission improperly ranked and why is it as important as you say, Hokage-sama?"

"The bridge is the cause of this mission's high level of danger." Hiruzen grabbed a scroll that had been on the corner of his desk and spread it open, revealing a world map. "As you can see on this map, the Land of Waves is a rather small island country. Much like the Land of Water, they rely heavily on ships to trade with other countries, and as such, ports are quintessential to the country's economy. But two years ago, their situation changed dramatically... I suppose both of you have already heard of a man named Gatou, yes?"

"You mean the president of the Gatou Corporation? The shipping tycoon?" Kakashi asked, pocketing his book. The topic merited his full attention. If someone as powerful as Gatou was involved…

Grimly, Hiruzen nodded. "The very same. My sources discovered that he used his money to buy all of the country's ports, effectively cutting off the Land of Waves from the rest of the world. He practically owns the country nowadays. He has full control of the country's economy and he can freely drain its resources with barely any costs," the Hokage said, in a low tone that allowed hints of anger to seep through his words. For someone like him, who sacrificed so much of his life to ensure the well-being of his village, Gatou's tyranny was infuriating. Hiruzen wanted to personally end the man's greedy existence, but for many reasons, that wasn't a possibility.

"Ah, I think I see where this is going," Kurenai muttered, crossing her arms. "That's where our client and the bridge that he plans to build enter the scene, correct?"

"Exactly. The bridge is a threat to Gatou's monopoly. Losing his control over of country will cripple his business as a whole, and thus he will undoubtedly seek to eliminate our client. That man has more than enough money to hire assassins, which is why I consider this mission as an A-rank at this moment. As I'm sure you have guessed by now, the proposed payment for the mission is all that the Land of Waves can afford to give us at the moment, which is the reason behind Tazuna's attempt to lie to us and say this is a C-rank."

Mentally, Hiruzen noted how futile it was to lie to him. He knew that Tazuna had no other option, but he was the Hokage, for god's sake! Being informed about the world around him was part of the job!

"Normally," he continued, "despite wanting to help, I would not accept this kind of mission. After all, I do have to think of my own village first... but that's exactly why we must help them right now." Hiruzen pointed at the world map, specifically at the Land of Water. "Gatou is a key player in the economy of many other places, one of which is Kirigakure, the Land of Water's hidden village. As you know, the Mist is currently in the middle of a bloody civil war, and according to our intelligence, Gatou is the Fourth Mizukage's key supplier. Be it food or weapons, it could be said that Yagura's army is practically funded by Gatou, and if he loses his hold on the Land of Waves, Kiri's insurgency will be given an incredible advantage."

"So," Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "we are trying to depose the Mizukage indirectly by crippling Gatou's business, is that it?"

"Yes," Hiruzen confirmed. "The one who will become the Fifth Mizukage if the insurgency wins, as of now, is a woman by the name of Mei Terumi. Considering what my sources tell me about her personality and morals, as well as the situation that the Hidden Mist would be in if she assumes the position... I see in these events a chance to forge an alliance with the Mist. The previous rebel leader was of dubious character, but he was recently caught and executed, which is why this situation wasn't interesting to Konoha up until now," he explained. While some might think his spymaster might have been focusing more on the woman's sizable bust rather than her character, he knew that Jiraiya's opinion about Mei was trustworthy.

…Both about her character AND her bust size, which Jiraiya had emphasized quite a bit in his report.

"What if this Mei doesn't survive the war?" Kakashi eventually questioned.

At the thought, Hiruzen suppressed a sigh. "Who would assume the village then is not known. Firstly, it would depend on which side wins. With Gatou out of the equation I don't believe the Mizukage's forces will hold out, but the person who would assume the village in Yagura's place might be more reasonable than him. As far as my sources were able to discern, Mei is the only remaining Kage-level shinobi on the rebel's side, in terms of combat ability. We'd need to wait and see who would be the new Mizukage before making a move, but offering help during reconstruction to improve our ties with them should still be feasible."

Kakashi nodded, and Kurenai followed up with a question of her own. "But Hokage-sama, why can't we offer our support to the resistance in the Hidden Mist directly instead?"

That what she truly wanted to know was 'why does my team need to be involved in all of this?' was something Hiruzen didn't fail to note.

"So far our only ally in the five elemental nations is Suna," he continued, deciding that an explanation of Konoha's relationship with the other major villages was in order. "After the Sandaime Mizukage's death, our relationship with Kiri became neutral once again. However, the current Mizukage, Yagura, violently opposed the idea of making an alliance with us for unknown reasons, and we are still not in good terms with Kumo and Iwa, thanks to previous wars and some smaller incidents over the years," he pointed at the hidden villages of the Water, Earth and Lighting countries on the map as he spoke. "Openly siding with the resistance would be enough for Yagura to declare war on us. It's far from a wise move considering how the civil war affected his village, but that man is literally insane, so it's a very real possibility that must be considered.

"But the real danger here is that, despite the Mist's precarious situation, there is a chance that the Hidden Cloud or the Hidden Rock would see an opportunity to oppose us by supporting Yagura, and potentially invading Konoha as well as providing manpower to shut down the resistance in Kiri. It does not help that the Hidden Sand is currently economically crippled, and thus, we'd be surrounded from three sides with little backup. This why we must capitalize on this opportunity to have the Mist on our side and why participating in their civil war is unfeasible. Lastly, the Mizukage himself is also the jinchuuriki of the Three-tails... and worse, he can fully control it. I believe you can see why we cannot take this risk, correct?"

Resisting the sudden urge to gulp, Kurenai realized that she had no way to counter her Hokage's logic. Still, the safety of her genin depended on her, and she found herself pressed to continue questioning the Sandaime in hopes of changing his mind.

"...Hokage-sama, I... I do understand," Kurenai stammered, "but why must our  _genin_ teams do this kind of mission? It's too dangerous for them!"

Being completely honest with herself, Kurenai didn't care much for the bigger picture. She had no issues with risking her own life during this or any other mission, but while the situation of the world around her was truly worrying, directly dealing with that was not her job. Protecting her team, on the other hand, was, and she knew Kakashi would also do everything in his power to protect his own squad.

But when you add that to an equation that already had a defenseless client and unknown assassins, their A-rank mission could easily become S-ranked in difficulty.

Unlike Kurenai, Sarutobi's expression kept his feelings very well hidden—a leader could not show weakness in front of their subordinates after all. "I am perfectly aware of the dangers, but we do not have another option in this case. The council of elders has no idea of the true nature of this C-rank mission or my intentions, and if they knew about it, they would veto my decision immediately." Neither jonin were very informed about the inner workings of Konoha's government, so they didn't question the Hokage on this matter.

Konoha's council of elders is composed of three people who assist the Hokage in managing the village, each having their own administrative duties delegated by the Hokage. However, they have enough political influence to veto the Hokage's decisions if all three of them disagree with him.

He had spent too many decades with his teammates Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado… they were predictable. The former was always reluctant in dealing with other countries unless they were forced to or there was no risk involved, while the latter had a heavy bias regarding the Hidden Mist due to past personal losses. If they were the only elders, Hiruzen knew he would convince at least Koharu.

The last elder, Danzo Shimura, would be just as impossible to convince as Homura. He'd never risk so many key resources of the village (the Kyuubi, the last Sharingan and an unsealed Byakugan) and if Hiruzen knew his old friend well, Danzo would be able to convince Koharu to veto the mission. Luckily, Hiruzen knew that Homura would be on his side instead if Danzo proposed an alliance with Yagura, so at least that wasn't a worry.

Hiruzen firmly refused to ally himself with someone that supported brutal practices such as the Bloodline Purges or Kiri's deadly graduation exams. Those two things already said enough about the Mizukage's character—he was not someone Hiruzen wanted on his side. However, considering the man was also a perfect jinchuuriki and mentally unstable, he also was far too dangerous to make an enemy of.

"But now," he proceeded, "thanks to my project, I have the perfect cover to send two highly capable jonin to deal with this "C-rank" mission. As I already mentioned in our previous meeting, the council approved the possibility of joint missions for the four genin teams involved in my project. It just so happens that your genin have a good combination of supporting abilities that would help both of you during the mission and the skills that will help them survive the ordeal; in particular Team 8," he said, eyes falling to Kurenai.

Albeit reluctantly, the kunoichi finally understood her Hokage's intention. "I see... between Shino's kikaichu, Hinata's Byakugan and Kiba's sense of smell, we could avoid unnecessary conflicts and prepare more thoroughly if running is not an option, correct?"

"That was my logic, yes." The Hokage confirmed. "I also believe that Naruto's shadow clones can assist in that regard, and there's also the fact that his teammates were the best the academy had in this year. Between all of the jonin-sensei and their teams, this is the best combination that I have available for this mission at the moment, Kurenai."

In truth, Hiruzen wanted Might Guy's team over Kurenai's since a Byakugan user would be more than enough support in most situations, but they had been sent to a border patrol mission a week before and thus were unavailable for the next ten days. Still, between the skill of the two top students, the tracking/scouting abilities of the other four and the strength of their sensei, these two teams had the highest odds of returning from the Land of Waves without suffering too many deaths, or dare he hope, any casualties at all.

Mulling over the Third Hokage's words, Kurenai's shoulder sagged as she finally nodded. "I understand," she practically sighed.

Hiruzen allowed himself to relax a little, internally glad that this discussion was nearing a peaceful end. Having to pull the "I'm the Hokage, shut up and do it" card was never very pleasant.

"It's a dangerous mission, but I have faith that you will all accomplish it and return safely. But while I don't like to lie to those kids, it's better if you don't mention the level of danger they are in at first." All three of them were aware that having that kind of pressure on the genin's shoulders from the get-go would just get them killed. "Still, do reinforce the fact that such things could happen during missions in order for them to keep their guard up," Hiruzen recommended. "You can never be too careful, even on a normal mission."

The two jonin nodded to their leader, and the Hokage moved on to conclude the meeting. "Finally... I cannot give any reasons for the council to cancel my project thanks to a lack of results early on, so I want both of you to work with the other's team tomorrow and with everyone during your downtime while in the Land of Waves. Try to get a feel for the new kids, both for the sake of the project and the mission itself. You will depart the day after tomorrow, at seven in the morning, but do come to the Mission Assignment Room with your teams later tomorrow for me to give them the mission officially. You can tell them about the mission before that happens if you wish, but everything that wasn't on the scroll is classified unless strictly necessary for their survival during the mission. Any questions?"

There were none.

"Then you are dismissed."

Nodding, the pair left the office through the front door. It pained Hiruzen to watch. Kakashi seemed unaffected, but a simple comparison of how Kurenai entered and left the room—how fear had corrupted her confident stride—made Hiruzen even more aware of the burden he was placing on their shoulders.

It wasn't the mission, but the young lives he was risking for that goal. It was a massive gambit. But his instincts—the one thing he had learned to trust above all else during his career—told him he was doing the right thing.

Still, he worried. Finally alone, he grabbed his pipe again and slumped in his chair, sighing loudly. "That went well enough... hopefully, their debriefing will be no different."

If there was one thing he thought worse than discovering that his men died in action... it was the fallout. Having to tell to a person's family that their father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son or daughter… that they would never see that person again. It was, by far, the hardest part of being Hokage.

In this case, the situation could be even worse since the heirs to the Aburame and Hyuuga clans were involved, but to Hiruzen, the true problem lied with the two genin that didn't even have a family in Konoha to return to.

One was Sasuke Uchiha, the last person in Konoha with the mighty Sharingan in his blood. While losing access to that kekkei genkai would be a huge loss for the village, what truly worried the old Hokage was how his elder brother might react to the boy's possible death. Itachi Uchiha, despite what everyone else thought, was still a loyal ninja of Konoha, but losing Sasuke… Hiruzen wasn't sure that boy would be capable of handling that. His psyche was frail enough as it was.

The other case, Naruto Uzumaki... was the one possible death that would hit him the hardest, both as a Kage and as an individual. His concern as a Kage was obvious: the Kyuubi. But as a person… it would be losing a boy he came to consider as his own grandson. A grandson that Hiruzen had failed enough as it was—his lack of foresight ended up ruining Naruto's childhood, and it was one of his biggest regrets in life.

Hiruzen's hope was that he would one day witness the young Uzumaki getting the recognition that he so desperately wanted—and considering his burden, rightfully deserved. But if Naruto died so young… he'd go down in history as an evil being that deserved to die, rather than the hero that he is for shouldering such a heavy burden.

Perhaps, if he had gone through with his decision to remove Danzo from the Konoha Council after confronting him about his dubious role in the Uchiha Massacre, he might have been able to convince the remaining members that his plan was sound and spare those kids from this mission, depending on who would take over Danzo's chair. But now… that was just another failure added to Hiruzen's pile of regrets.

He put his pipe down.

_'This is no time to ponder the mistakes of the past'_ , Hiruzen told himself as he went back to fight against the one opponent that even the God of Shinobi, as they sometimes called him, could never beat: paperwork.

Being the Hokage is never easy... but even as his fears and doubts nagged at him, he knew that he needed to set them aside and trust in his subordinates.

In the Will of Fire.

* * *

On their way out of the Hokage's Tower, Kurenai and Kakashi talked for a bit and decided on a simple schedule for the next day. First, they'd swap teams for the morning, meet up at lunch to get the mission from the Hokage, go back to one of the training grounds to have lunch and then train together for the rest of the day.

As soon as the discussion was over, Kakashi simply asked her to tell her team to avoid eating breakfast and disappeared in a gust of leaves. If she knew her old friend well, he was headed to the memorial stone to reminiscence or talk to his fallen teammates, as he often did. She was sure his genin team was waiting for him, but she was also sure he didn't care about making them wait just a couple extra hours.

_'As long as he doesn't pull that stunt with my team, I suppose that's fine. Not that I'm one to talk now,'_ she sighed.

Kurenai had left Team 8 during their lunch break after an ANBU appeared to inform her of the Hokage's summons, but it had already been over one hour since then. She felt a bit guilty for not going any faster—she could have gotten to the training grounds that her team used with a Body Flicker after all—but she decided to take the long route and settled for a walk instead. It wasn't a particularly fast way of traveling, especially for a ninja, but she needed to clear her mind a little before facing Team 8 again. She was still shaken from the meeting, and she couldn't project that aura of fear around her genin.

Her genin… the thought still brought a smile to her face.

It still surprised how much she became attached to "her kids" despite only knowing them for a couple weeks. Or rather, she knew Shino and Kiba for a couple weeks, since the Hokage had assigned her to teach Hinata a couple months before the graduation. As much as she cared for the boys, it wasn't on the same level as their teammate. She felt as if Hinata was her own daughter.

However, at first Kurenai had considered teaching Hinata as an insult. Firstly, the Hokage had said that "nobody else was available," which was an obvious lie. Secondly, she could not teach the Gentle Fist to the girl and wouldn't be allowed to teach her much about genjutsu because of the Hyuuga clan's traditions, so why her? Was it some sort of punishment?

The only thing that had crossed her mind was that the girl needed academic help, but surely there would be better options than her. Ultimately, that mystery had piqued Kurenai's curiosity enough that she ended up accepting to meet up with Hiashi Hyuuga, the clan head and in this case, her client. She hadn't intended to accept the job—as a jonin, she had the right to deny a job when not Konoha wasn't in a crisis or war.

Her encounter with Hiashi on his mansion's dojo had changed her perspective completely. Much like the bridge builder from the Land of Waves, he too had lied about the mission's parameters. What he wanted was not a teacher for his heiress… he just needed someone to take out the trash.

Useless. Failure. Inconvenience. A waste of time. Those were only some of the terms Hiashi had used to describe his own  _child_. The memory alone made Kurenai's blood boil, but when it happened? It had angered her enough that she accepted to teach the girl before she even realized the words were leaving her mouth, purely out of spite for the man.

Kurenai had decided to do everything she could to prove Hiashi wrong, even if she didn't know how… but as she left that dojo, she found not only an answer to that problem, but a better reason to go through with it: Hinata herself.

The girl had been right beside the dojo's door, and by accident or design, she clearly had overheard every word. Her shoulders were slumped and her head hung low in defeat, body as still as a statue and so destabilized that she hadn't even noticed the woman's presence. Her eyes… it still hurt Kurenai to remember the raw sorrow she saw reflected there. Hinata didn't cry, but somehow it just made Kurenai's heart hurt even more as she watched.

Be it pity, empathy or even some sort of maternal instinct that awoke inside her at the moment, Kurenai felt that she could— _should_ —help that girl.

She didn't believe in coincidences. Their paths crossed for a reason. That the Hokage told her later that day that she was guaranteed to be the Hinata's sensei if she graduated all but confirmed it.

As the days passed and they began to interact, Kurenai realized the girl's problem wasn't a lack of talent. She was no genius, but she wasn't as bad as Hiashi had made her out to be. Hinata's problem was  _mental_. She hesitated too much, gave up easily and didn't believe in herself; her attempts to become stronger were corrupted by both fear of failing and the belief that she already was a failure—results of having her self-worth crippled by her clan and family.

Coaxing Hinata out of her shell was one of the hardest things Kurenai had ever done. It took a lot of patience and understanding, of praises and encouragement at the smallest of successes... but Kurenai saw that the little flower she had found wilting would definitely bloom one day. She had just needed a little love.

Kiba and Shino's inclusion to their dynamic had been a worry. Kiba was brash, explosive and intimidating, which made the Hinata fearful of upsetting him or even his dog, Akamaru. Shino was quiet like Hinata, but he was intelligent, unapproachable and blunt, making Hinata hesitant of proving herself stupid and a burden in his presence. Both boys constantly disagreed with each other because Kiba wanted to be the leader of his "pack" and Shino undermined him with constant criticism of his poorly-made decisions and uninformed comments, leaving Hinata as a nervous, silent observer to their conflicts until Kurenai stepped in.

The worry went away when Kurenai had the idea of grooming Hinata to be the team's peacemaker. In a way, the girl's first attempt had been disastrous. She had been a stuttering mess and not even Kiba's sensitive ears deciphered her mumblings… but it made the boys realize there  _was_ a third person in Team 8, and that they were scaring her.

Kiba still had a desire to be the pack's alpha, but regarding Hinata, it began to manifest itself as a protective instinct. His outgoing personality ended up working in the team's favor when he noticed he could help the gloomy girl to keep her spirits up. Shino, on the other hand, kept Hinata grounded. His logical personality made it all but impossible for the girl to doubt or undersell herself with him nearby. Unlike Kiba, these two were loners and struggled to connect with others, but a team building exercise revealed that both enjoyed reading books, giving them enough common ground to begin their friendship.

It warmed Kurenai's heart to see how quickly Team 8 had bonded over the two weeks she had spent with them. Their bond was more than just interpersonal—it flowed into how they worked as ninja. They quickly understood the concepts of teamwork and Kurenai knew they would pass Kakashi's infamous bell test without problems.

As she walked through Konoha's busy streets, Kurenai's thoughts took her back to the meeting she and a select few jonin had with the Hokage roughly a week before. It was during that meeting that the Sandaime introduced his educational project, and it was because of this same project that things like her team taking Kakashi's bell test would actually be happening.

The Sandaime had been carefully reviewing the concepts that the academy was teaching as well as the performance of genin teams that had participated in previous Chunin Exams, regardless of promotions. To say that he wasn't impressed was an understatement.

The Hokage had come to realize that the academy was focusing far too much on the theoretical aspects of being a ninja and the cultural aspects, such as the history of the shinobi world. Because of that, the Academy didn't give the necessary attention to practical skills, leaving that job to the students themselves, their families (who many times weren't even ninja), and later on, the jonin-sensei.

The Academy only taught three E-rank jutsu: the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone jutsu. The physical training barely strayed from target practice with kunai/shuriken and basic taijutsu practice with spars.

Genjutsu was, much to Kurenai's disappointment, barely covered in practice. The teachers used basic E-rank genjutsu (such as changing someone's hair color) to teach the students how to dispel the illusions, but the actual execution was nowhere in the curriculum. They taught some theory about it, but that would only help those that chose genjutsu as their specialty.

And talking about specialties, the data from the Chunin Exams showed that ninja that came from clans were focusing only on their own niche, whereas those that didn't have a shinobi on their families struggled to find an area to focus on. This held true for many of those that were promoted as well as the majority that failed (not to mention those that died). Being predictable was one of the worst flaws a ninja could have, and the alarmingly high rates of death and grave injuries among recently promoted chunin were a testament to that fact.

It was clear that if things continued like that, Konoha's current generation of ninja would be crippled. As the Hokage, it was Hiruzen's job to find a solution to what could end up being a great problem for his future forces.

From there, the Professor, as some called the Sandaime, devised a project that sought to continue the education of genin and chunin. While the genin were still focused mostly on D and C-rank missions, they would undergo extra lessons on topics such as tactics and genjutsu in order to sharpen their skills and minds in preparation for the Chunin Exams and the B-rank missions that they would be then participating in.

In order to help those that managed to earn their flak jackets, chunin that didn't choose to pursue administrative or educational duties would also take extra classes on areas and subjects that they could specialize on, such as bukijutsu, fuuinjutsu, tracking, capturing, infiltration, poisons, medical ninjutsu and information gathering. Not only would this help to expand the skill set of his chunin, but it would allow them to better utilize the ninja they would be leading during missions. A Yamanaka, for example, might not be fully aware of how to use an Aburame under their command for tracking purposes.

His ultimate plan was to then integrate the extended genin curriculum into the academy, and then the extended chunin curriculum to the genin after a year or two. But… unfortunately, Konoha didn't have the funds to invest in such a huge project.

They would need to reform and expand the academy, hire new teachers that would able to teach these subjects to the students (which would also have another cost from both parties being unavailable for active duty at some points), invest in utensils for classes that required specific materials (like scrolls, brushes and ink for fuiinjutsu lessons, or the ridiculous amount of accessories needed to deal with poisons), update Konoha's library with materials the students would need... it was definitely costly.

That fact led the council of elders to reject Hiruzen's idea for the time being, but the old Hokage stubbornly insisted that his project was an immediate necessity and well worth the money and the cuts on the yearly budget. After much debate, the Sandaime decided to propose a smaller, cheaper version of the program to test if the results would truly justify the costs of the full project, and that was readily accepted.

They decided to experiment with only a select few genin teams, and instead of having classes taught in the academy, the lessons would be on training grounds or during missions.

For the "trial" version of the project, he chose the three genin teams that graduated from the academy that year, as well as one squad that had graduated in the previous year and still had to participate in a Chunin Exam. The choices weren't because Hiruzen had somehow used his crystal ball like a common fortune-teller to determine that those four squads would be involved in many important conflicts over the coming years and that every other squad Konoha had wouldn't be of note until a future war.

Of course not.

That would have been ridiculous.

Teams 7, 8 and 10, all of which graduated recently, were specialized squads. Team 7 was an assault squad, Team 8 a tracking team, and Team 10's specialty was in ambush/capture. The "veteran" Team Guy—Kurenai had no idea why they didn't use a number—was also chosen because, despite being another assault squad, the team was surprisingly balanced and able to perform well at any of the areas the newly-formed teams focused on.

The fact that all of the twelve genin involved with the project were either the children of clan heads, the top students of their class or the worst students of their class wasn't a mere coincidence. Another important factor behind Hiruzen's decision was related to the jonin in charge of the project and the teams in question. Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy were the very best Konoha had to offer on the subjects of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu respectively.

Asuma Sarutobi, the jonin in charge of Team 10, might have seemed like the odd one of the four since he had no specialty of his own. However, a ninja with no niche is a ninja that can fit into a wider variety of teams and take a wider variety of missions. Asuma had a fair amount of experience with practically all facets of the profession, hence why Hiruzen chose him for the tactics class. He was the perfect shinobi to take the knowledge the genin have from the academy and transform it into something usable in real life.

Kurenai, who now was not very far from the Training Ground that her team was using, had been very excited about the project and the chance to  _finally_  teach people about her craft. While she loved her squad, Shino and Kiba had no talent for genjutsu. Hinata, on the other hand, had some potential and interest in the art, but the girl refused to learn illusions because of her clan. They believed that a Hyuuga should only move on from the Gentle Fist once they master it, and going against the tradition was taboo.

To Kurenai's surprise, Hiruzen had convinced Hiashi to make an exception for the sake of his project. Perhaps Hiruzen had called in a favor… but it didn't matter to her. She now had more than a few genin capable of learning from her, and she was definitively looking forward to her time with Team 7, however grim the circumstances around that arrangement.

But that would only be on the following day. She still had much to do before that.

Finally, Kurenai arrived at the gates of Training Ground 5, where she had left her team. Even after all that time walking, she still felt the need to close her eyes and take a deep breath to center herself.

If the Sandaime was correct, the eight-man team's chances of survival would be much higher if Team 8's tracking abilities were working as they should, and thus, she would push them hard for the rest of the day.

With determination blazing within her red eyes and her confidence restored, Kurenai continued moving forward. She had to do everything in her power to ensure these kids would survive the coming weeks. That, was her top priority.

None of them would die on that mission. Not on her watch.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... we're done! I know this chapter was mostly exposition and I apologize for that; I tried to make it as interesting as I could. The Sandaime's project and the geopolitical background of the mission needed to be explained for the "Team 8 also goes to Wave!" part to make sense.
> 
> I'd like to remind everyone that, for all intents and purposes, this is an AU. There will be things that will change and things that have already changed so don't expect everything to match canon despite me not straying very far from it for the bigger plot.
> 
> For example, the Wave mission originally happened only a week after graduation. With an extra week between these events, Team 8's stronger bond is more believable, and Team 7's genin are now a little more tolerant of each other. Kurenai taking Hinata under her wing earlier was done for a similar reason.
> 
> Another important change that surely most of you noticed is that Hiruzen's power as the Hokage is slightly more limited... and that he didn't get rid of Danzo (though he did order him to disband ROOT, which Danzo didn't. Obviously). While this might not come up in my story, the reason behind this is that Hiruzen had no solid evidence to back up his claims about Danzo's involvement with the Uchiha Massacre, so he was unable to get rid of the old war hawk. Also, I found it rather weird that they didn't have someone to become part of the council after Danzo left... but that's about it.
> 
> Ah, one thing I think that deserves to be said here (and it's on my profile too) is that fanfics are community projects. If you spot any errors, inconsistencies and such, please send me a PM about it. I don't care how small the error is, or even if it's just a letter that wasn't capitalized on the A/N... please do warn me. You will be credited with any errors you find on the revised version of the chapter (check my profile every now and then to see if any chapters were changed), and I will personally thank you via a PM and maybe give you a shout-out in an A/N too.
> 
> But enough of me explaining my explanations... hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, though! I'd like to remind you all that my profile has quite a lot of information about this fic. If you haven't already seen it already, please do it soon! Otherwise, feel free to read the next chapter.
> 
> Changelog:
> 
> v3.0.1 (24/08/17) – I decided to cut the little bit about Team Guy's name since I thought it could be better used in Chapter 21. Instead, Kurenai simply doesn't know how that came to be. Also fixed a little thing about the councilmen.
> 
> v3.0.2 (28/08/17) – Fixed some stray typos and missing line breaks.
> 
> v3.0.3 (16/09/17) - More small fixes, most of them because of the feedback I got from gio08, who recently became the fic's second beta reader.


	2. Chapter 2 - Dreams and Illusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! For today we'll spend some time with Hinata to formally introduce her, her life, past, and some of her dynamics with her clan. This chapter also covers the first of the three parts of Team 7's training with Kurenai.
> 
> It will be a while until these training scenes are done and the teams meet up (It will be at the end of chapter 5), so hang in there! These scenes are actually very important in the long run, as Chapter 5 will show.
> 
> Key warnings for this chapter: Bullying. Extremely minor OC halfway through. Somewhat in-depth talk about the basics of genjutsu.
> 
> I hope that you will enjoy this chapter!

 

 

It was snowing on that fateful day...

On a small road within the woods surrounding Konoha's ninja academy, a young girl could be found crouched near the ground, staring curiously at a small amount of snow that she held in her bare hands.

The girl had short, straight blue hair with twin bangs framing her fair-skinned face, and she was protected from the falling snow by a dull purple coat, blue pants, and a cream-colored scarf. Her pale, pupil-less lavender eyes stared at the fluffy white snow in childish wonder.

"So this is how snow feels like!" she giggled, unbothered by the cold sensation. Like all young children, new discoveries excited her.

The girl had been curious about how snow felt like for a while now. It was not like she hadn't seen snow in her life before, but her parents were very protective of her and never allowed her to go outside when it was snowing, so she could only watch from the closed windows of her bedroom as the white powder accumulated on the courtyard.

Finally experiencing the snow like she had wanted for so long brought a smile to her face, but not even five seconds later… it vanished.

She allowed the snow to slip between her fingers until it was back on the ground.

This newfound freedom… wasn't worth it.

Her mother wasn't there anymore, and her father stopped caring about where she went or what she was doing. It was almost as if he didn't want her to exist anymore, and somehow, that hurt her so much more than her mother's death.

She had overheard a few branch house Hyuuga saying that her mother's illness "took away more than just his wife". She wasn't sure she understood what they meant, but she supposed it was why he changed so much.

He no longer smiled or asked about her day. He sent instructors to train her in his place. He stopped passing by her room before bed to give her a goodnight kiss. He almost never leaves his office, not even for dinner. The one time she had managed to catch him outside the office she tried to hug him…

She missed him so much, but apparently, he didn't. He had only scolded her for showing weakness in public and pushed her away. To cry was to show weakness too, so she didn't dare to do it in front of him, and ended up fleeing to her room.

Thinking about that rejection still hurt—a lot—but her tears had long since dried, replaced by a frown. The only times she knew he was alone was when he was working! She had thought that maybe he was trying to say that it was okay for her to visit him in his office. Oh, how wrong she had been…

"I'm far too busy to waste my time with you. Leave."

He had been so frigid that the snow by her feet would be jealous. He hadn't even spared her a glance.

Surely, she  _must_  have done something wrong. The only other explanation was that he didn't love her anymore, but that was…

She scowled.

No, that couldn't be right. Even if she didn't know when, where or how, surely she messed up somewhere. That must have been it.

 _'…Maybe this is because I didn't awaken the Byakugan fast enough,'_ she thought. Her father had also berated her because of that, even though her grandfather had commented during breakfast that six was a fairly young age for the awakening.

Was that still not enough…?

Perhaps that why he hadn't given her any presents that day? It was the day of the Rinne Festival, of all things! The entire point of the holiday—from her perspective—was to give presents. Sure, her seventh birthday was only two days away, on December 27th, so  _maybe_ that year he was planning to give her only a single present instead of one for each occasion but… somehow, she felt that she shouldn't expect any presents.

 _"At least,"_ her eyes widened at the memory of her father's words, _"we can finally begin to train you in actual Gentle Fist."_

Could that be the key? She had been training only the basic katas of her family's taijutsu, and she knew she wasn't amazing at those. Her father had never complained when they still trained together, but she knew from his face and from how hard he kept pushing her that he wanted more, and now that she had the Byakugan... maybe she could finally improve and meet his expectations!

"Okay," she got up, eyes shining with determination. If she was to please her father, she needed to make sure that she wouldn't mess up how to activate the Byakugan during training. He had gotten another person to teach her the sign sequence for a forced activation, so a part of her doubted he would be overseeing her Gentle Fist training… but even so, she couldn't fail him again!

First, she went through the seals slowly, focusing only getting the order and shapes correctly since she still struggled a bit with both. The second time, now smiling confidently, she sped up and added chakra to the mix.

Her sight exploded. The veins around her eyes enlarged as blood and chakra rush through them, and the young girl watched with awe as the world of white snow around her transformed into a landscape of dull darkness.

The pitch-black snow held her attention for a while, but then she heard voices in the distance. Her eyes allowed her to see all around her, up to ten meters, but there was nobody in range.

"Hey, look! A girl!"

That was a boy's voice. If she wasn't mistaken, it was coming from somewhere behind her.

"Do you think she would want to play with us?" another boy spoke up.

"I dunno," a third boy said. "Let's ask her!"

The girl couldn't help her smile as excitement coursed through her. It had been so long since she had last played with anyone! As soon as they entered her expanded field of vision, she turned around to introducing herself.

A mistake.

"Ugh... look at those creepy eyes!" one of them exclaimed, his face scrunched up in disgust.

"It's one of those nasty Hyuuga!" another boy said, pointing at her.

Yelping, she instinctively took a couple steps back. In hopes of salvaging the situation, she scrambled to deactivate her dojutsu… but it only made everything worse.

"What, aren't we good enough to see your stupid Byakugan!?" the third boy spat venomously.

"Ha! She thinks she's something special just like the rest of her clan!" the boy who had been pointing at her scoffed. "But you are all just stuck-up, ugly-eyed dumbasses!"

Tears started to form in the girl's eyes, but remembering her father's words about crying, she held them back as best as she could.

The boy who had pointed at her began to laugh. "I was gonna ask your name, but I guess you don't need one! We'll just call you "The Byakugan Monster" from now on, you hear!?"

Her fragile walls crumbled as the other boys joined in the fun, laughing at her while chanting the nickname.

"P-Please, stop!" she begged, unable to control her tears. They began to laugh harder, and one of them shoved her to the snow.

"Monster! Monster!" they chorused in a musical tone, "Byakugan Monster!"

She didn't even think about getting up, instead curling into fetal position and covering her teary eyes, taking what little protection the darkness offered.

If only she were stronger…!

"Hey!"

A fourth voice cut through all the laughter and somehow, her despair intensified.

_'Another boy!?'_

"Cut it out, you  _cowards!_ "

Her mind went blank for a second—she was mistaken! She scrambled to get up, to see who was seemingly coming to her rescue.

It was someone that she would never forget.

A young boy, probably just as old as herself, was running towards the bullies from behind them. His yell made the trio turn their backs on her to face him instead.

The newcomer had spiky blond hair, blue eyes and cute little whisker-like marks on both sides of his puffed-up cheeks. The mysterious boy looked just as angry as his tone had implied, but the silly pair of green goggles on his head didn't make him look very threatening. He was wearing an open orange jacket, revealing a black shirt with a white spiral design on its center. His shorts were of a similar blue tone blue to the girl's pants, and he also wore a scarf—though his was of a beautiful crimson that put her own to shame, with the tail end flowing behind him, almost like a cape.

The bullies turned. "Who do you think you are to order us around!?" one of them screamed, pointing at the blond just like he had done to the girl beforehand. An epiphany told the girl he was most likely the group's leader.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be Hokage someday!" the blond boy boldly introduced himself, clearly hoping his future title would carry some weight.

Predictably, the trio only laughed at him for that declaration and began to mock him, calling him names much like they had done to the girl less than a minute ago.

However... unlike her, the boy didn't break down in tears. No, to the girl's awe, Naruto had enough courage to stand up to them.

"You don't believe me, huh?" he growled, in a tone that implied he had already predicted that he wouldn't be taken seriously. "Alright! Then I'll show you!"

Scowling, he brought up his hands together, pointer and middle fingers outstretched in a cross-like position: the hand seal used for the Clone Jutsu and all of its variants.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Sadly for Naruto, while the jutsu did work, it was far from ideal. After two poofs, a pair of clones appeared in front of the boy... but they were extremely small and deformed, not even a foot tall. In another situation, the little girl might have squealed from how cute the two mini-Narutos were, but that wasn't the case today. She had a good idea of what was going to happen next and it was not going to be cute.

Despite their size and appearance, both clones squeaked out a defiant "I'll kick your ass!" to the bullies, who in turn only stared at the failed copies in disbelief. The original, on the other hand, didn't look anywhere as confident as his miniatures. Much like the girl, he had already realized where this was going.

The three bullies proceeded to kick the clones away and beat up the defenseless Naruto. The boy tried to fight back, but it was in vain. Three against one were hardly fair odds, and he was a bit smaller than them, too.

The girl wanted to rush towards him to help—everything had been her fault—but fear of provoking the wrath of their tormentors left her paralyzed. All she could do was watch.

Naruto eventually went unconscious, and the bullies soon lost interest. The girl's silence made the bullies completely forget she existed, so they turned their attention to the next best thing: Naruto's crimson scarf.

They played many games with the scarf, from tug-of-war to using it to swing from trees, but they were so rough with it that the threads started to come undone. Once it no longer served any purpose, adding insult to injury, one of the boys threw the scarf on the snow and the three stomped all over it.

"There. Now it's trashed just like you, loser!" the leader of the trio said before they left the area, still laughing.

"Ha! That'll teach him!"

"Like hell someone like him will be Hokage one day!"

"…"

The girl never felt more disgust in her life. The only thing she didn't know was which was stronger: her disgust for the bullies, or for herself.

As soon as the boys were gone, the girl regained control of her legs. She hurried towards her fallen hero, but… she couldn't ignore the tattered scarf that stood between them.

It hurt to look at it. "You were so beautiful…"

Gently, she picked it up and folded it, and then approached Naruto. Crouching near him, she noticed his busted lips, his bleeding nose, his face all swollen and bruised…

And then the boy jumped to his feet.

"I'm not done with you!" he declared loudly, making the girl's heartbeat skyrocket from the scare. "This time my jutsu will work for sure and... uh...? What?"

The boy quickly trailed off as he looked around and realized that the trio no longer was in the woods. Sighing in defeat, he crouched to examine the torn remains of the scarf that the girl now held, looking at it unhappily.

The little happiness the girl still felt because he came to her rescue disappeared. "Are... are you alright?"

Naruto rose and wiped the blood from his face using his sleeve. When he faced her, it was with a wide, brilliant smile. "Yep! I'm fine. I'm used to this kind of thing, so it's no big deal."

She eyed him skeptically—something about his smile was  _wrong_ —but decided not to press him. "Um... here!" she offered the scarf back to him instead. "It will warm you up. Y-You must be cold…"

Much to her surprise, instead of being happy that the bullies at least hadn't stolen the scarf, he waved her off dismissively. His smile disappeared, leaving only that same sad expression from before in its place.

Clearly, it was more than just a scarf for him. The realization came with a horrible wave of guilt.

It was all her fault.

"I'm sorry..." she apologized, head hung low. Saying it only made her feel worse.

"Nah," Naruto got up, shaking his head. "It's okay."

To her shock, immediately after saying that he turned his back on her and ran down the road, as if nothing had happened.

"Wait!"

Naruto stopped and faced her, confusion written all over his face.

"Um... I... th-thank you very much!" she said, bowing to him.

She heard a soft gasp and once she straightened, she saw him slack-jawed, eyes wide and with disbelief all over his face. It was almost as if he had never expected her to show gratitude or respect despite his heroics…

And then he offered her the brightest smile she had ever seen in someone's face, almost as if saying "thank you" himself.

It left her with a warm feeling in her heart as he once again took off. He was laughed at, insulted, beaten up, he lost his scarf... and he still had the strength to keep going, smiling.

It was inspiring.

_'Can I become as strong as him one day?'_

Her gaze then fell to the bundle of red threads in her arms, and she clutched it tightly to her chest. As unusable as it was, it made for a precious Rinne Festival present.

A symbol of hope. A symbol of courage.

 _'You lost this red scarf because of me,'_ she thought, smiling,  _'but one day... one day I'll knit another scarf just like this one and give it to you… Naruto-kun.'_

A symbol of their newfound connection.

That promise remained on her mind even as everything around her—Naruto, the trees, the snow—began to waver.

Slowly but surely, the world blurred until it was no more…

* * *

...And to a sequence of increasingly louder beeps of an old alarm clock, Hinata Hyuuga awakened from her slumber.

"Ugh…"

Groggily, her narrowed eyes darted around confusedly in the darkness of her room. When her brain finally began to work properly again, she sluggishly threw her covers off and crawled to the dresser by the foot of her bed.

"5 a.m," she read aloud in a raspy voice, silencing the alarm clock that demanded her attention while rubbing her lavender eyes.

Hinata was now twice as old as her dream self, and traded the winter clothes that kept her warm in the snow for a light, pink kimono she wore as a pajama. Her hair was still short but had gained some extra volume, which her messy bedhead greatly exaggerated.

Now in silence once again, she yawned, stretched… and fell back on the mattress, smiling fondly. Her mind had already erased a fair amount of the dream she just had, but some of it still stuck… after all, her dream had a real-life counterpart.

That day was one of her most precious memories, despite how it all began. However, not all that she had dreamed matched reality. Some of what the bullies did in her dream would've been too much for a simple scarf to endure without ripping completely, and she was sure Naruto had no idea that the Shadow Clone Jutsu even existed at the time—she has a vague recollection of him shoving one of the bullies before they ganged up on him.

Hinata was sure that if Naruto knew about that jutsu, he would've relentlessly pestered their sensei Iruka about teaching it to him, only for Iruka to say no and leave Naruto pouting for the rest of the class. She could easily imagine the scene, and it made her giggle a bit.

Kiba had done the exact same thing the day before, after learning from Kurenai the reason behind Naruto's field promotion to genin. He spent the rest of the day a bit snappy with everyone, which predictably led to a couple conflicts with Shino that she had to diffuse.

"I hope they'll behave today," she sighed. Kurenai was already used to their dynamic, but who knew how Naruto's sensei would react to their bickering?

With another lazy stretch, Hinata jumped out of bed, slipped on her slippers and headed to her bathroom to clean up. She was supposed to be on Training Ground 3 in two hours, but she still had important things to do beforehand and no time to lose.

Normally, she would still wake up around that time, if only to enjoy the peaceful early mornings by herself. The only other people in the Hyuuga Manor that were active at that time were some of the branch house servants; starting her day so early allowed her to have breakfast in peace, away from the loud gatherings of the main house that happened every single morning.

Hinata had always felt a degree of anxiousness in noisy places full of people, but say, traversing a busy street? It was unsettling, especially if she was alone, but she could handle it. Breakfast with her clan, however… not as much.

They stared. They  _whispered_. She could see the disdain and even pity in some of her clansmen when they looked at her. She could feel the unspoken comparisons to her younger sister, who took to the Gentle Fist like fish to water.

It got to the point where she constantly had to fight the urge to faint.

She still couldn't believe it had been easier for her to muster the courage to strike a deal with her father instead of enduring it. It came with a promise, however: that she'd stop being an embarrassment to him and the clan as a whole. That she'd use that time to train herself. That she'd strive to make him proud and prove she could become worthy of his time.

A few years before, she had religiously used that extra time for its intended purpose… and yet, she had barely shown anything for it. Her father never bothered to check on her to see if she was really training, so, discouraged by her lack of progress and by how little all of it mattered, Hinata eventually began to use some of that time to invest on her hobbies instead.

After all, not only did she hate that she was training so to hurt— to kill—people, she knew would never get better… so why bother if she would inevitably fail? She was forced to train during part of her day regardless of what she did in the mornings anyways.

At least, it was easier to endure it all if she could brighten her day a little, be it by taking care of her late mother's garden, by investing on her hobby of pressing flowers or even by experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen. She had been using more and more of her free morning time for those kinds of activities as the years went on…

Almost thirty minutes after she woke up, Hinata emerged from her bathroom, clean and with her blue hair neatly combed. Making a beeline for her wardrobe, she collected some of her clothes for the day: a simple black T-shirt and blue pants. From the drawers inside the wardrobe she chose her underwear, frowning a bit when she picked up a bra—she hated having to use those cumbersome things.

After dressing herself, Hinata traded her slippers for sandals and left her room.

She spent a couple minutes walking through a series of empty identical-looking hallways, deliberately designed to make navigation as hard as possible for intruders, who (ideally) lacked a Byakugan. Of course, since she lived there, Hinata didn't need her dojutsu to find her destination: the manor's kitchen.

There were many branch house Hyuuga inside. Cooks and servants, who worked hard to prepare the massive meals the main house consumed for breakfast.

The head cook noticed her entering. "Ah, Hinata-sama! Good morning!" he greeted her with a smile, and the other people in the room quickly followed suit.

"Good morning everyone," Hinata replied, her quiet tone contrasting with her own bright smile as she took in the familiar faces.

"Going to prepare lunch for your team again, Hinata-sama?" one of the maids asked, a girl slightly older than Hinata whose name was Keiko.

"Yes, but not just them," Hinata said as she walked towards the refrigerators, her head held high. "Another team will eat with us today, so there's a lot of food this time."

Not to mention she planned to pack bigger helpings for herself and her teammates, since they were instructed to skip breakfast.

"Hmm," Keiko pursed her lips. "Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it, okay?"

"It's been a while since Hinata-sama has truly needed our help," the head cook commented, laughing. "I'm sure she can handle it. Or did you forget she made Hanabi-sama's birthday cake all by herself? That wasn't even two weeks ago!"

Hinata blushed, smiling from ear to ear not only at the memory of her accomplishment, but at the expression of pure joy that her little sister wore as she ate slice after slice of the three-layered cake.

The guests too had found the cake's taste and decoration to be marvelous, but Hinata cared little for their opinion… though she did wonder how they'd react if they knew who made it.

 _'Alright... let's see what we can do today.'_  She opened the refrigerator.  _'I need rice, some vegetables, fish… wait. Oh, so we still have some pork.'_

Luckily for Hinata, the cooks told her they weren't planning on using the pork, so she chose it to be the lunch's protein instead of fish. Kiba had commented before that he preferred "real meat" instead of fish, but that wasn't the only factor she had in mind.

From her…  _research_ , Hinata also knew that a certain someone really, really loved extra pork with his miso ramen. It truly wasn't much, but seeing as she knew she didn't have the guts to approach him directly, it would have to do.

_'My debt to Naruto-kun won't pay itself after all.'_

Though, she couldn't deny a part of her just wanted to impress him with her cooking skills… and maybe…

 _'Stop! Focus, Hinata,'_ she shook her head, hoping to dispel her distracting, futile thoughts.

Hinata brought some ingredients to a corner of the room that the staff had arranged for her. She had a fair amount of space as well as pots, utensils, sink, and even a stove for her personal use, all thanks to her father cutting some personnel a few years prior and unknowingly freeing up the space and tools.

She had thought they had done it just to get her out of their way, but to her surprise, it had been a simple show of gratitude. An earnest "thank you" for treating them with kindness and respect even though she could've trampled all over them to get whatever she wanted.

 _'It's a pity that most of the main house think of them as little more than slaves,'_  she thought with a frown as she began to organize her workspace.  _'The cursed seal truly is an abomination… but I shouldn't think about this right now.'_

Hinata took a deep breath to clear her mind. Nothing good would come of cooking with such heavy thoughts on her mind.

Instead, she focused on how her teammates had reacted to her food. Every single time she had brought lunch to them throughout the past two weeks, they had showered her with compliments.

A fire burned in her eyes. Hinata refused to let that day be any different.

_'Okay! Time to work!'_

* * *

"And… there! All done," Hinata whispered to herself, wiping the sweat off her brow. ' _It's nothing fancy, but I'm sure they'll love it.'_

If there was one thing about herself that Hinata had full confidence in, it was in her ability to cook. She felt in comfortable and in control when cooking: she knew exactly what she was supposed to do, and exactly how to do it. Good results were nothing but a consequence of those two facts.

It had taken her quite a while to start believing in what other people told her after tasting her food… but now, Hinata could look at her handiwork with pride: eight bentos brimming with food—delicious food, she knew—as well as fresh tea and orange juice in two separate thermoses.

Satisfied, she walked back to the refrigerator and took out a little pot of leftovers for Akamaru, as well as a bottle of water and two ice packs to keep all the food at ambient temperature, placing all of those next to the bentos.

All that was left was to pack them, and Hinata had left her old academy backpack in one of "her" cabinets the day before specifically for that. But when she bent down to open it…

A monstrous sound echoed through the kitchen. The room had been bustling with noise, but the roar was loud enough that everyone noticed it. And they all knew who was at fault.

Keiko, who had been near Hinata by coincidence, couldn't resist and burst out laughing. "Looks like  _someone_ skipped breakfast, right Hinata-sama?"

"Don't tease the poor thing, Keiko-chan!" the head cook scolded, with a traitorous hint of humor in his tone. "You know how she gets."

Hinata found the backpack but refused to get up, face reddening. A few other workers were also snickering, to make things worse.

Was it too late to crawl inside the cabinet…?

"But it's so funny!" Keiko argued. "She's such a shy, quiet little thing, but her stomach  _clearly_  had enough of being like that!"

Hinata mumbled something about the height difference between them being negligible, but even as close as she was, Keiko had no hope of deciphering it.

"Sorry, though," the maid apologized instead. Keiko did not bow to the girl, knowing that Hinata didn't like that kind of treatment.

"I-It's fine," Hinata rose and began to pack her things, blushing terribly. "M-My team… our sensei said to skip breakfast for today's training. I don't understand why, though…"

The maid winced. "Ouch… cooking's already unpleasant enough by itself, but doing it while hungry? That must've been torture!"

Hinata faced her with the smallest of smirks. "Cooking is never unpleasant."

"You listen to her, Keiko-chan," the head cook butted in, just as Hinata had predicted. "She knows what's what."

Giggling a bit at the playful argument that ensued while she finished packing—Keiko hated to cook—Hinata said her goodbyes to everyone and left the kitchen, retracing her route from earlier in the morning.

Hinata left her backpack on the bed and glanced at her clock. It was 6:30 a.m; she still had quite a few minutes to spare before risking arriving late.

It was time to equip herself for the day.

She took a roll of bandages from her dresser and wrapped it around her right thigh before tying up her weapon holster over them. This was to allow the holster to be strapped securely without hurting her or cutting off the leg's circulation.

As a Gentle Fist-user, Hinata only kept shuriken on the holster since kunai were often superfluous. Still, kunai had their uses, so she kept some in her hip pouch, together with other items like rope and a small container of ointment. After checking if all of her tools were there, she attached the pouch to the back of her pants.

Next, she took her headband. As much as she disagreed with all the practices revolving around the cursed seal, she didn't dare to use it to cover her forehead, despite it actually being the smarter thing to do. After all, if an enemy killed her, they would mistake her for a branch member and wouldn't take her eyes. Some main branch Hyuuga did wear it like that, but considering her position as the clan's heiress and her shaky social standing…

"I'd probably be banished or something," she muttered with bitter humor, tying the headband around her neck instead. That wasn't too bad either—the neck was easily the most vulnerable part of the body.

Lastly, she opened her wardrobe again, this time focusing on a pile of identical cream jackets with the Hyuuga Clan's red emblem sewn on the shoulders, inside yellow circles. Her father had ordered various copies for her to wear during missions, as they had chainmail woven on the inside, but the kitchen's heat made wearing them while cooking suicidal.

Still, Hinata loved them. She felt cold easily, they had hoods, and were also quite comfortable. More importantly, their thickness added some bulk to her frame, flattening her silhouette and hiding her chest. After her last growth spurt a few months prior and before she got in the habit of wearing the jackets, not only her female classmates kept shooting her dirty looks—as if it was her fault her body was like that—but she had actually caught grown men ogling her chest, one of them being an academy teacher.

It had been…  _violating_.

Shuddering at the memory, she zipped up the jacket. Looking a bit plump was worth it.

Ready to leave, Hinata went to close her wardrobe's door when her eyes caught a glimpse of something special, hidden behind some folded sheets in a dark corner. Most people would perceive it just as an old shoebox.

To Hinata, it was her treasure chest.

She took the box and opened it. Inside was an old, damaged crimson scarf, which she began to stroke it gently, looking at the cloth with fondness. "It's been a while, hasn't it…?"

Her younger self used to take out the scarf often, hoping to draw courage from the memories it brought. However, her attempts at becoming stronger grew half-hearted as the years passed. Knowing she had betrayed everything her— _his_ —scarf represented, Hinata had become too ashamed to look at it again. Unworthy.

There was even a time she had considered burning the scarf. When her last year at the academy began, her father had finally decided to stop paying instructors and take charge of her training himself. The months she spent with him had all but convinced her that it was completely futile to keep trying to meet his expectations... to keep trying to earn his love.

Things had become easier once she began to train with Kurenai, but it wasn't until the day she had been assigned to Team 8 that Hinata began to feel courage again. It was when the scarf's previous owner showed her once again that one should never give up, no matter what the world tells you. Naruto had reignited a fire inside her heart, and she found herself training harder than ever before as her career as a genin began, knowing that if he had succeeded, then she had no excuse.

She had to try her best, and that was exactly what she planned to do.

After putting her treasure and its chest back where they belonged, Hinata made her bed and opened her curtains and window, allowing fresh air and sunlight to enter the room.

The sun was bright, the sky was cloudless, and the birds were singing happily. Her heart sang with them—she could feel that it was going to be an amazing day.

Leaving her room behind, Hinata again braved her home's maze of corridors but took a different path this time. Some main house members were already arriving for the breakfast ceremony that happened at 7 a.m, so Hinata tended to leave the through the dojo instead. It connected to the outdoor training grounds at the back of the manor, and simply walking around the outer walls of the building would lead her down a side entrance that nobody but the guards paid attention to.

She went inside the dojo and kept walking towards the courtyard door, which was open. Nobody used the room until after the breakfast ceremony… but Hinata realized that the door should have been closed too late.

"Hinata. I was waiting for you."

The only thing that kept her from screaming was that she recognized the voice—a man's voice. It made her body froze automatically, and it was with great effort that the girl managed to force her head sideways, slowly, to confirm what she dreaded.

The man had white, seemingly pupil-less eyes similar to her own lavender ones, and his long brown hair that flowed freely down his back. He was dressed in a loose white robe under a brown haori.

It was her father, Hiashi Hyuuga.

His expression was stoic and controlled, betraying nothing… or rather, one detail slipped by: the dark, veiny skin around his eyes that suggested a restless night.

Driven by a surge of fear, Hinata whirled around to face him, bowing low to show him respect and to dodge his gaze, if only for the moment.

"G-G-Good mo-morning, otou-sama. W-Why… um…"

Her voice—meek and at a higher pitch than normal—died in her throat together with that dangerous question.

"I am here to discuss a matter that was brought up during last evening's monthly council meeting."

Hinata didn't even expect it anymore, but the lack of the small, simple gestures like a "good morning" still hurt, even after all those years.

…Straightening, she mused that greeting someone you hate must take too much effort.

"As you know," Hiashi continued, "there are doubts regarding your position as my heiress, thanks to your poor performance and your sister's talent. The spars you two had with each other over the past couple years prove as much."

Hinata lowered her head, face burning with shame. While she had never given her all in those fights to preserve Hanabi's future, her little sister was skilled enough to give her a run for her money even if she were to fight at her fullest. Her chances were 50%, at best…

"After yesterday's meeting, it was agreed that our clan's future cannot remain in this dubious state of affairs. You and your sister will duel once again. If you lose, your title of heiress will be forfeit and your responsibilities toward the clan will change accordingly with your position in the line of succession."

Hinata's head slowly moved upwards. Her father remained as expressive as a wall.

"However, you've recently become a genin and thus have to prioritize your duties to Konoha. I need to know your schedule before I can decide when the duel will happen."

"…Understood."

There was no stuttering, no hesitance and no fear in Hinata as she informed about her training and upcoming mission. It was completely numb and mechanical, and though she looked at his face as she spoke, Hiashi noticed that her gaze was unfocused.

"…I see," He crossed his arms. "Then I will wait for your return to settle this. You should take this evening to rest and prepare for your mission tomorrow… Hinata," he narrowed his eyes, "are you listening to me?"

Hinata snapped to attention. "Y-Y-Yes!" she blurted out, stiffening.

He continued observing her. "… Tell me, you said that you'd be training under another team's sensei this morning."

Hinata nodded. She began to feel an uncomfortable tightness in the pit of her stomach.

"I remember that the documents I had to sign regarding the Hokage's project mentioned three teachers besides your team's. I'm curious: which one will be teaching you today?"

"Ka… K-Kakashi," she somehow managed, distracted by her trembling legs.

"Ah… him."

On the back of her mind, Hinata realized that was the first time her father's usually stoic tone showed any hints of annoyance during their conversation. Those and his scowl were constantly present whenever they interacted—particularly during the months she trained with him in that very room—but oddly enough, they had been absent until that moment.

…She was so focused on trying to get air into her lungs as subtly as possible that the thought failed to stick.

"You should go, then," he said. "That man has no respect for anyone's time, but that doesn't mean you can show up late. I too must leave to begin the breakfast ceremony."

Following the unspoken prompt, Hinata bowed with great difficulty and her father left the room without saying another word.

The door slid shut and Hinata felt everything whirl. The dojo's walls began closing in on her and Hinata tried to flee through the other door, but she only managed a couple shaky steps into the courtyard before her legs betrayed her.

The sun was still shining outside, but its warmth was nothing compared to the cold sweat marring her pale skin. The sky was still cloudless, but Hinata's vision had wavered so badly that she couldn't even recognize anything. The birds were still singing, but Hinata couldn't hear them over her gasps for breath—unlike her legs, her lungs were working on overdrive.

Somehow, even as a deep fear overwhelmed her, the only thought her mind conjured at the time was that she'd probably end up late.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki was already late.

 _'Crap… I can't believe I forgot that today we would NOT be dealing with Kakashi-sensei!'_  he thought, shoving a hastily made sandwich down his throat as he jumped from roof to roof towards Training Ground 5.

Thanks to Kakashi's chronic lateness, he was used to waking up at 8:30 a.m. When his alarm clock woke him up two hours earlier than normal he simply turned it off, cursing the poor thing for malfunctioning. Luckily, a flood of memories jolted him awake before he could oversleep for more than fifteen minutes

To make things worse, in his hurry to get ready for the day, Naruto ended up tripping on something while making a bowl of cereal—likely a pair of dirty underwear, but he wasn't sure—and dropped the bowl, dirtying his clothes and the floor with spilled milk.

That forced him to double back and change his orange tracksuit and pants to another pair identical to the one he had (that is, ignoring the milk stains), and he lost some time mopping up his floor, too. Spoiled milk smelled bad enough when it was just on his refrigerator.

That tragic incident also got rid of the last box of cereal that he had, so a simple sandwich had to do.  _'Meh. Not my favorite, but at least it's something,'_ he thought, smirking wildly before taking another bite _. 'I'm sure that the suckers Kakashi-sensei will be working with are going to take that stupid bell test, so they haven't had breakfast yet AND will be stuck for hours waiting for that lazy cyclops.'_

With his mouth full of bread, he barely contained his mischievous laughter at the expense of the innocently ignorant members of Team 8, whoever they might be. Eating was simply the higher priority, so he settled for enjoying a tasty breakfast in their stead.

But fate had other plans for that sandwich.

Not even ten seconds after he thought that, Naruto tripped on a particularly slippery rooftop and fell, dropping his half-eaten bread in the process.

"No…!" he whined pathetically, reaching out to his bread as it slid down to the streets—likely on the head of some poor civilian that happened to be at the wrong place and the wrong time.

"Dammit," he banged his fist on the roof before getting up and fleeing the scene. He had no doubt that if someone saw him, they would get the wrong idea and think he did it on purpose as just another prank. However, from the loud barking sounds and yells that he could hear down below, he thought that maybe nobody would've noticed him anyways.

 _'…I guess a few bites are better than nothing,'_  he sighed, trying to look at the brighter side.

Soon afterwards, Naruto finally arrived at Training Ground 5, Team 8's usual training joint. Walking in, he noted that it really wasn't very different from the one his team used. It looked almost the same, right down to the little lake in the center—or pond, he didn't know. It only lacked the stumps and the memorial stone.

Naruto easily spotted his two teammates in the distance, seemingly chatting with each other—he knew better.

The first one was Sasuke Uchiha. He was propped up against a tree with his arms crossed and the usual scowl on his face, his closed eyes hiding the black color that matched his spiky hair. If the surname wasn't proof enough of his lineage, the red and white fan depicted on the back of his blue shirt didn't leave any room for doubt. Sasuke also wore a pair of simple white shorts, which to Naruto, ruined whatever "cool" image he wanted so badly to uphold.

 _'Arrogant prick,'_  Naruto frowned, shifting his gaze to something much more pleasant: the girl by Sasuke's side, who incidentally was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

Sakura Haruno's long, pink hair flowed gently in the wind, almost blending with the petals of her namesake that floated alongside it. Her eyes were of a particularly striking shade of green, contrasting nicely with the crimson qipao she wore. Though… the white circles on the shoulders and on the lower part of the dress were awkwardly out of place, in Naruto's opinion (not that he would ever say it aloud. He valued his life). Given how the dress was open on the sides and exposed her legs fully, she also wore tight green shorts to preserve her modesty, but Naruto personally had never focused on that area enough to notice it.

Seeing the two together always made Naruto's stomach churn. Sakura never spared any resources in her attempts to win Sasuke's affections, but the brooding Uchiha either shot her down on the spot or ignored her completely. That day, Sasuke went with the latter… Naruto just couldn't comprehend it; he would've given everything to have Sakura chasing after him like that.

Worse, he knew that the cheerful behavior Sakura upheld despite her failures was mostly a mask. Her negative emotions keep building up, and when she finds a suitable target to dump them on…

_'Oh oh.'_

Sakura made eye contact with him, and for one instant, her eyes flashed a dangerous red that froze his soul.

"NARUTO!"

The distance between them began to close rapidly. Naruto knew that resistance was futile and didn't even try to escape.

"You're late!"

"Ow!"

She poked him in the chest, and Naruto swore that had no right to hurt as much as it did.

"Not as bad as Kakashi-sensei—"

"Ow!"

"—but still late!"

"Ow!"

"I told you to be on time today!"

Trembling under her smoldering gaze, Naruto rubbed his bruised chest. "S-sorry 'bout that, Sakura-chan," he chuckled nervously. "I know you said you're looking forward to today... I messed things up with my alarm, you know?"

"Oh really?" Sakura arched a brow, crossing her arms. "So you just overslept, huh?"

"N-No!" he took a couple steps back. "Well, kin—I mean… look."

Sweating under the pressure, Naruto hastily tried to explain what had happened to him that morning, but Sakura interrupted him when he neared the halfway point.

"Right. You tripped on 'something'. Very believable."

"But I rea—"

"Shut up."

Sasuke walked up to them, unfazed by the glare Naruto was sending his way. "We're already behind schedule because you're an idiot," he said, eyes then shifting to Sakura. "Questioning his excuses isn't any better. You two are only wasting our teacher's time."

The girl's shoulders slumped at the unspoken insult. "I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun…"

Between the interruption and insults, Naruto was just about to blow up at Sasuke, but his rival's last words gave him pause.

"Wasting her time? You mean… sensei's already here!?"

He looked around frantically, scanning the trees and the pink cherry blossom petals around him, but…

"Uh, I don't see anything."

Inwardly and for the billionth time, Sasuke cursed everyone involved in building his team. "You truly are hopeless."

"…Oh, you think this is funny, dontcha!?" Naruto stopped searching and began to march towards Sasuke, baring his teeth. "You liar! I'll teach you a—whoa!

Naruto jumped back as the petals that were scattered across the clearing came to life. A sudden wind picked them up, whirling them around the three genin before they converged right in front of an awestruck Naruto. With a flash, the petals disappeared as if they had never existed, leaving a displeased-looking Kurenai Yuhi in their place.

"I've been told you were bad with genjutsu, but I didn't expect for it to be to this extent," she let out a small sigh. "I know it's the season, but there aren't any cherry trees here, Naruto. Your teammates figured out that they were in a genjutsu almost immediately after they entered. I was here all along."

Kurenai expected one of three reactions from that: Naruto would either lash out at her defiantly as Kakashi said he was prone to, keep quiet but make no effort to hide a bad mood, or he'd cower in fear. She had been betting on the latter, knowing the effect her red glares tended to have on people, however…

"Wow…! You're beautiful!" he blurted out, making both of his teammates stare at him with wide eyes.  _'Man, why couldn't we have her instead of Kakashi-sensei? She even got here on time!'_

The earnest, unexpected compliment brought a hint of red to Kurenai's cheeks. "E-Excuse me?"

"And man, what a cool entrance!" Naruto continued, eyes sparkling with excitement as a thought struck him. "I didn't know you could teleport using genjutsu! You're gonna teach that to us, right? Right!?"

Behind him, Sakura groaned and Sasuke just shook his head, both muttering things involving the word idiot.

In front of him, Kurenai regained her composure.

"Firstly," she raised a finger, "none of you can perform the Great Flower Escape just yet." Another finger. "Secondly, I didn't teleport—I was just hiding in plain sight! Honestly… teleportation isn't something genjutsu does! Only ninjutsu or fuuinjutsu can do that."

Seeing Naruto gulp, Kurenai tried to calm herself. She had a bad habit of getting annoyed when people were ignorant about her specialty… undoubtedly, that was seeping through her expression and tone.

"Thirdly… thank you for the compliment," she gave him a small smile. "I could tell it was honest, and not an attempt to flatter your way out of trouble."

Naruto scratched his head. "So… am I in trouble?"

"Well," her smile gained a hint of mischief, "it's not my intention. Just this once, I'm putting the blame on Kakashi for being a bad influence. But you do need a reminder about what is a genjutsu, from what I'm seeing. Would you consider that as trouble?"

"Er, well…"

"He totally does," Sakura flatly ratted him out.

"Gah! Sakura-chan…!"

Unlike Sasuke, who merely rolled his eyes, Kurenai had to laugh at Naruto's panicky reaction.

"Before we get to our lesson, I want to know a little more about you three." She sat down in the grass and motioned for her newest students to do the same. Naruto purposefully sat beside Sakura, and to the girl's visible disappointment, Sasuke walked around her to put Naruto between them.

It made Kurenai quirk an eyebrow, but she refused to comment on it.

"Let me formally introduce myself first. My name is Kurenai Yuhi, current sensei of Team 8. I'm also known as the Genjutsu Mistress, not only because it's my specialty, but because I'm our village's strongest genjutsu user, which is why the Hokage chose me to teach the genjutsu lessons for the project you three are part of."

Usually, Kurenai couldn't help herself and would add that many had compared her aptitude with genjutsu to that of an Uchiha… but given the present company, she kept her ego in check—not that kids of their age would truly understand the comparison anyways.

"I enjoy reading in my free evenings, especially while drinking some quality saké... oh, and I suppose teaching my team is a hobby of mine too. Despite it being my job, I love sharing what I know with others. The only thing I can say that I truly hate is people underestimating or belittling me because of my gender. Now, what about you kids?"

Kurenai had finished her introduction with a smile, and it shrunk each time one of the genin finished their introductions.

Naruto's was mostly identical to the one he gave to Kakashi. Knowing how much the village as a whole resented him, Kurenai truly admired Naruto's desire to become Hokage, even if she suspected his reasons weren't the best. Most importantly, she already knew she would really need to help the boy today if he truly wished to lead Konoha in the future, and it made her excited to continue the lesson.

Sakura had modified most of her introduction, now that she got used to the idea of who her teammates were. Instead of yelling out "Naruto" when prompted about what she disliked, Sakura just described him in indirectly, without mentioning his name. While she still glanced meaningfully (but more subtly) at Sasuke when talking about her likes and future, she chose to mention studying and trivia games as her hobby, and despite sounding embarrassed about it, she admitted her only future goal was to earn money to help support her family.

While that last part was fairly respectable, Kurenai found the girl's mindset to be disappointingly mundane. Sakura had a lot of potential for genjutsu according to the academy reports, but Kurenai doubted that the girl had the drive needed to grow strong enough to be the next Genjutsu Mistress… or that she was taking her profession seriously in the first place.

Sasuke, like Naruto, changed almost nothing during his second introduction. The palpable anger and hatred that Kurenai could feel when he talked about the man he aspired to kill—whose identity was obvious to her—spelled out all kinds of tragedy for the boy's future.

It left Kurenai almost as worried for him as she had been for Hinata when they first met, but she had to swallow it down.  _'If I don't do my job correctly now, he won't even have a future to worry about.'_

Sasuke's ambition created a tense atmosphere that Kurenai had no choice but to try and break. "Now then. As part the Hokage's project, I will be giving you three a deeper course on genjutsu throughout the coming months. My main goal today is teaching Sasuke and Sakura the basics, and we will advance to more complex techniques in future lessons as you two become more proficient with genjutsu."

"Hey, and what about me!?"

Of course, the loudest genin of the team refused to be ignored like that.

Not that Kurenai hadn't expected the outburst. "Well, Naruto, your teammates have some aptitude for genjutsu, but you don't. I'm not saying it's impossible for you to learn genjutsu without an affinity... but tell me, which of the three academy jutsu made you fail to graduate?"

Scowling, he crossed his arms and turned his head away. "That stupid Clone Jutsu," he confirmed her suspicions. "But who cares if I can't do it!? Shadow clones are way cooler!"

"The issue is not that you can't, but  _why_  you can't."

Sasuke scoffed at those words. "Isn't it just because he didn't pay attention in class?"

"That probably didn't help, but Naruto's problem is with his chakra reserves and control," Kurenai said, turning to the boy in question. "If you have no problems with the Shadow Clone Jutsu but struggle with the Clone Jutsu… it means your reserves are very large for your age, and your control is poor. The Clone Jutsu requires very little chakra, so the larger your reserves, the harder it is for you to get the right amount."

A bulb lit up above Sakura's head. "So when I do a clone, it's like… 10% of my chakra, but for Naruto it would be about 5% or less… is that right, Kurenai-sensei?"

"Exactly," Kurenai confirmed, despite feeling that the proportion would be far, far lower. "It's much more difficult for someone born with such large reserves to execute a clone jutsu, and genjutsu would be even harder."

 _'So I had a handicap all along,'_ Naruto realized with a slight frown.  _'Though I would've never learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu if it wasn't for that, so… I guess it worked out in the end.'_

"Thus," Kurenai continued, drawing his attention, "today your job is to be our guinea pig: your teammates will cast genjutsu on you and you will be breaking them over and over again."

"…What!? But this is dumb!" Naruto yelled as he rose to two feet. "I don't want to be a training dummy!"

Kurenai sighed, closing her eyes. _'It seems I'll have to show him why this is important the hard way, just like with Kiba...'_

"How's that even going to help me become Hokage!?"

"Ah, yes…" Kurenai also got up. "You did say something to that effect, didn't you?"

She drew a kunai from her pouch with a flourish and in slow, measured steps, began to walk towards him with a predatory glint in her eyes.

Before Naruto knew it, his legs were taking him backwards... but his teammates were as still as statues.

"G-Guys! Watch out!"

The only one to react was Kurenai, who smirked as she strolled right between Sasuke and Sakura. "Don't worry about them. In fact…"

Naruto's back collided with a tree that  _definitively_ hadn't been there before.

"Don't worry about becoming Hokage either."

When his eyes darted back to Kurenai, he saw her body distorting in a spiral pattern until it became a black mist that dissipated in the air

"She's gone…? But—what the!?"

The roots of the tree clamped up on Naruto's body, coiling around him like snakes and restraining his limbs. Not that he could move; the sight of a kunai held only inches away from his neck paralyzed him from head to toe.

"You can't do  _anything_  against genjutsu," Kurenai whispered from behind him, so close that his neck tingled because of her breath. "And you will never be Hokage if even a genin can easily trap and kill you with a mere C-rank illusion. But I have good news," she purred sweetly. "You won't have the chance to experience that feeling."

She shifted her grip on the kunai, aiming the sharp tip at Naruto's neck. "It'll be quick," she promised. "You'll feel cold for a while, but that's all."

Her arm reared back and Naruto  _screamed._  His eyes closed reflexively when the blade darted towards him, plunging him into darkness.

…And then came the cold.

Naruto had closed his eyes only for one second, but the array of differences between these two moments of sight assaulted him so suddenly that it almost left him dizzy.

He heard someone laughing, almost hysterically.

He couldn't feel a tree pressed up against his back anymore, nor the roots that had restrained him. Instead, he only felt a flowing, cool wetness flowing down his head, making him shiver as it drenched him through his clothes.

His blond hair became a curtain that impaired his vision, but he could still see his teammates on the grass. Sasuke had turned just enough to allow him to see his infuriating smirk, and Naruto had to suppress that familiar urge to make his eye—which was shining with amusement—black in more ways than one.

On the other hand, Sakura was lying on her back, trembling from her uncontrollable laughter. "That," she wheezed, wiping tears from her eyes, "was just  _priceless…_!"

A kunai sliced through the air from somewhere behind Naruto, burying itself by his feet with a dull thud. An empty water bottle soon followed, bouncing on the grass.

"Do you understand now, Naruto?"

He kept silent, which Kurenai took as a yes. She then moved around, standing between him and his teammates. "So, which one of you can explain to us what is a genjutsu?"

Sakura, who had yet to get up, raised her hand. "I-I'll do it, just… gimme a minute…!"

"Very well."

While waiting for Sakura to catch her breath, Kurenai went to recover her bottle and kunai, which accidentally put her face-to-face with Naruto. His posture and expression… they were guarded and angry at the same time.

It dawned on her that she made a mistake.

 _'…Ugh. Way to go, Kurenai,'_ she shoved the kunai and bottle inside pouches her dress kept hidden.

Seeing the distrust in his gaze, Kurenai realized she hadn't thought things through. Naruto and Kiba were similar, yes, but there was one crucial difference between them that her methods hadn't considered. Kiba took the water as a reminder of who the true "alpha" of the pack was, but Naruto's past would make him interpret that action very differently.

_'I guess all that happened yesterday is still affecting me if I couldn't see something this obvious coming from a mile away…'_

"Naruto?" she approached the boy and crouched to his level, keeping her voice in a low, soothing tone. "Can we talk for a moment?"

"…What do you want?" he asked with a bluntness that almost made the woman wince.

"Listen. I didn't do this to be mean or because I hate you, I just wanted you to understand how critical it is for you to do what I'm asking. I can't do much to make you stronger, yes, but I can help you overcome this weakness. Genjutsu isn't lethal by itself, but this can get you  _killed_ , Naruto. Do you really understand why I did all of this?"

He looked down.

Unlike when he faced Mizuki, there were no good news to make him forget about the lethality of the situation. He could see her point perfectly.

However… the  _humiliation_ that followed was not so easy to understand. From his perspective, if Kurenai's aim was simply to teach him a lesson he'd never forget, then there was no need for her to dump water on him like that afterward.

"… Yeah, I get it," he muttered, refusing to face her.

If he had, he'd have the guilt flashing across her eyes. Kurenai knew she'd have to somehow earn his trust, and she decided to start small.

"Can you give me your jacket, please?"

Though he eyed her woman with suspicion, Naruto unzipped the wet jacket and handed it over. To his surprise, Kurenai just wrung the water out of it and walked away to a nearby tree, on which she tied up the jacket and left it to dry.

A considerate gesture, but he wasn't fully convinced.

"Hey, and what about this?" he asked when she returned, looking down at his plain black shirt. It wasn't completely soaked, but much of its upper half was uncomfortably sticky.

"That? Er…" she motioned for him to come closer and whispered in his ear: "Your seal will show up if you use chakra. Sorry, but you'll have to bear it."

"Huh. I didn't know that… well, okay," he shrugged, trying to ignore the weird look the other two were sending their way. "The sun will take care of it, I guess…"

Naruto couldn't say he was happy about Kurenai or this "prank" she had pulled on him… but he had to admit, she knew what she was doing. Despite being 100% sure the lesson would be horribly boring, he was actually willing to listen to it—she  _proved_ to him how important this knowledge was. It was more that could be said from his old academy teachers, as even Iruka lacked the patience to explain these things to him.

The two then joined Sakura and Sasuke, and seeing that the girl had regained her composure, Kurenai motioned for her to begin.

"Alright," Sakura straightened. "To put it simply, a genjutsu is when you use your chakra to mess with someone's nervous system. You can make an enemy see, feel, smell, hear and even taste things that don't exist, distracting the person so the user or their team can finish them off or flee. You can make the illusion work on a specific person, group, or make it affect anyone within a certain range."

"Excellent!" Kurenai offered her a wide smile. "That's a perfect description of what genjutsu is. It seems you really grasped the concepts you were taught in the academy, Sakura."

"Oh, that was nothing special," the girl rebutted, idly playing with her hair in a show of embarrassment. "Anyone that listened a little in class could've told you that..."

Sakura's inner thoughts were nowhere as humble as she sounded.  _'Hah! I'm so awesome! Now that even someone as renowned as Kurenai-sensei praised my intelligence, surely Sasuke-kun will—"_

"Hn. That was just the basics."

_'…agree with me…!?'_

"Man," Naruto began, unaware that Sakura's spirit was crumbling into dust at that very second, "that stuff sounds really strong… there's gotta be a way to deal with it, right?"

"Of course," Kurenai said. "Genjutsu in general has two main weaknesses. Firstly, it's an art that requires much more chakra control and dedication when compared with ninjutsu and taijutsu of the same level, so most people that focus on it aren't as skilled with those other arts."

"Oh, I gotcha," Naruto cracked his knuckles, grinning. "You mean we gotta ambush 'em, huh!?"

"Yes. Your average genjutsu-user needs teammates to cover for them, and sometimes the teammates also rely on the illusions to find openings. But," she smiled cryptically, "an ambush is always advantageous, and not always possible."

The blond deflated, brows knitting together "Well, that's true…"

"That's where the second weakness comes in: the stronger genjutsu you'd see in battles tend to warp the victim's sense of time. If you spend an entire minute in an illusion, it's unlikely that even three seconds have actually passed in the real world… which gives you plenty of time to break the genjutsu and react."

Naruto's expression of unease remained unchanged, and Kurenai's soon matched it. "You… don't know about breaking genjutsu," she realized.

The review would take more time than she had expected.

"Knowing him, I bet he skipped that class," Sakura piped in, lips twisting in disgust.

Naruto only smiled sheepishly at that.

"Of course," Sasuke scoffed. "Typical."

"Shut up, Sasuke! Nobody asked you," Naruto snarled.

"Actually," Kurenai crossed her arms, "I'll ask it. Sasuke, can you explain to Naruto the two ways he could've escaped the Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death? You were the top genin of your class, so I trust you know that much."

The Uchiha met her challenge with a dissatisfied, bored look. "He could've stopped his chakra flow and then expelled the genjutsu's chakra out of his system, or he could've forced his body out of the illusion by recalibrating his senses with a strong external stimulus."

"Uhhh... Did you really have to use all those complicated words?" Naruto whined, frowning confusedly.

Kurenai opened her mouth, but Sakura was faster. "Naruto, remember that bit about genjutsu messing with your senses? You can get your body to 'wake up' if you stimulate any of them hard enough. It's almost always easier to work with tact: just bite your lip or tongue—it has to  _hurt—_ and you're out. If what Kurenai-sensei said earlier about your chakra reserves is true, you should probably just forget that stuff about chakra flow."

"Hm," Naruto scratched his chin. "Okay. That actually sounds pretty simple…" he muttered to himself.

"Well," Kurenai began. "Sasuke, your explanation was correct but Naruto has a point—keep your audience in mind when explaining things."

"It's not my fault he's an idiot."

"Hey! You—"

" _As for Sakura,_ " Kurenai raised her voice, glaring at the boys for a second, "your simplification was also correct, but I think Naruto is capable of doing the chakra flow method; we'll try that out later. Lastly," her eyes landed on Naruto, "you too are correct. Breaking out of a genjutsu is simple… but the real difficulty lies in figuring out you're in one.

"Now, before we move on to practice, I want to cover the last way to escape genjutsu: teamwork."

"Kurenai-sensei," Sakura's arm shot up, "can I explain that one too!?"

The woman chuckled in response. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I suppose I shouldn't let you and Sasuke handle all the explanations."

"Wait a sec," Naruto spoke up, "didn't you say there were only two ways?"

"I said two ways  _you_ could've escaped from an illusion," she corrected him. "Going back to what your teammates said: genjutsu works because a subtle amount of the user's chakra affects the victim's nervous system. Your body can't detect so little foreign chakra on its own, but when you stop your flow it becomes obvious. It's just a matter of pushing it out with your own chakra afterwards—how much depends on the genjutsu's strength. Do you three follow so far?"

They nodded.

"Good. If a teammate notices you are in a genjutsu, they can help by touching you and sending some of their chakra into your body. Since they aren't making any attempt at masking their chakra, your body will react and try to flush it out, which ends up destabilizing the genjutsu and breaking it. And… that's it for the theory. Any last questions?"

One look at their faces told her that all of them were confident in their understanding of the concepts they discussed. She didn't expect less from Sakura or Sasuke, but just to be sure, Kurenai spent a couple minutes quizzing Naruto on all that they had discussed until that point.

The result…?

"Bravo!" she applauded him, prideful. "You got all of them right!"

Naruto, unused to be praised, blushed and scratched his head. 'Well… I guess she's not that bad.'

"Color me surprised," Sakura commented off-handedly. "You actually paid attention for once."

"Yes, and I'm glad he did," Kurenai confessed as she calmly got up. "Now we can finally move on to practice."

"Great!"

In contrast to her teammates and Kurenai, Sakura practically jumped to two feet. "So we're finally going to learn some genjutsu, right!?"

"Oh my," Kurenai smirked, amused at how the girl was leaning forward with her fists pumped. "You sound surprisingly excited about this."

"Heh, Sakura-chan's been talking about learning from you all week," Naruto commented, earning a brief pouting glare from Sakura, who couldn't help but blush.

"Sorry Kurenai-sensei," the girl muttered, shifting in her feet. "It's just… I can't help it. Back at the academy, our teachers kept saying I could be great with genjutsu but they never taught any, and Kakashi-sensei just wants to focus on teamwork… but now?" she grinned widely. "I'll finally have cool jutsu in my arsenal! How awesome is that?"

"…Cool jutsu?" Sasuke just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You're looking  _and_ sounding exactly like Naruto right now."

_'…Huh?'_

At that moment, alarm bells began to ring in Naruto's head. He saw Sakura' fingers trembling as she closed them into a tight fist, and though she still wore a pleasant smile, the odd way her wide-open eyes began to twitch twisted the expression completely.

He knew those signs.

Sakura's neck slowly spun sideways until she was facing Sasuke. "What did you say, Sasuke-kun…?"

As fast and silently as he could, Naruto backed away and took cover behind Kurenai, much to the woman's complete befuddlement.

"I… said you're acting like Naruto," Sasuke replied, his stoic tone betraying some confusion at the… intense way Sakura stared at him. "You were talking ab—hngh!?"

Sakura pounced on him, grabbing him by the collar in such a way that his feet actually left the ground.

"You jerk! How  _dare_ you compare me to Naruto!?" she screamed, shaking him violently. "I'm nothing like that idiot, you hear!?  _Nothing!_ "

"S-Sakura-chan, you're going to kill him…!"

The girl froze at those words. Her brain quickly caught up with what she had done, and when that happened…

"Oh no!"

"Argh!"

…She dropped Sasuke, who stumbled backwards, fell, and hit his head on the ground.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun! I'm sorry, I-I don't know what came over me," Sakura stammered, hurrying to his side. "Are you hurt? Is it bleeding!?"

Still hidden behind Kurenai, Naruto huffed at the scene unfolding in front of him. "If it was me it would be all punches and no apologies… this sucks."

Meanwhile, Kurenai closed her eyes to center herself and tried to make sense of the mess that was Team 7.

_'Kakashi was completely right in his initial report. They have potential—'_

"Dammit Sakura, get off me! You're annoying!"

"Sasuke-kun, please don't be mad at me! I didn't want to call you a jerk!"

Kurenai heard Naruto stomping towards the other two, growling.

"What does he have that I don't, Sakura-chan!?"

_'—but as long as they get on each other's throats like this—'_

"Shut up Naruto! Sasuke-kun's much cooler than you and—ow! That hurt!"

"Serves you right. If you listened to me the first time then I wouldn't have to push you."

"Hey, if you don't stop bothering her I'll beat you up!"

_'—they'll never be fit for much more than a D-rank mission. This is a big problem...'_

"Like you could even touch me, loser."

"What was that!? You bastard...!"

"Sasuke-kun, show him wh—!

" _Enough!_ "

"…"

"…"

"…"

The genin silently moved away from each other.

"Disappointing," Kurenai crossed her arms, glaring icily at all three.

Both Naruto and Sakura looked away in shame, but Sasuke held a sour, defiant expression of someone who didn't believe they were in the wrong.

"Let's not waste more of our time," the woman sighed wearily as she took out a scroll from her pouch and created two Shadow Clones. "This scroll has a few extremely basic, harmless D-rank genjutsu. Sasuke, Sakura, today we'll cover two of the simplest ones. Naruto, you'll be their target so you can practice breaking out of genjutsu. Once I'm satisfied with everyone's progress, I'll start casting illusions on all of you so you can improve your attention to detail and practice how to get your teammates out of an illusion, and we'll keep that up until lunch break. Are we clear?"

Seeing there were no objections, the clones approached Sakura and Sasuke while Naruto flopped on the grass again to wait until his teammates were ready to experiment on him.

Kurenai didn't truly need the second clone, but this time she chose to keep herself free. She needed to think.

_'These three will be in grave danger if they are like this during the mission tomorrow._ _Is there anything I can do to fix this situation?'_

What Kurenai forgot that day, is that when one tries to fix a problem, they risk creating another…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you people freak out: Hinata's panic attack is NOT because she fears that losing to Hanabi means being sealed. Her fear is about something else entirely, as you'll see next chapter. (I feel bad for setting up her day as something great only to drop that on her, lol).
> 
> This was our first look at Hinata, and I hope you guys liked my interpretation of the character. There's still a lot more to see, but I hope this showcases well the foundation of her personality.
> 
> This chapter's second half is setting up the basis for some of Sakura and Sasuke's expanded character development, and to a lesser extent Naruto's, but you will only see hints of where I'm going with this once I get back to Team 7 in chapter 4, though chapter 5 will state outright what my plan is. Hopefully the bickering wasn't too annoying...
> 
> And, well... hope you enjoyed the genjutsu talk, too. I like to touch a bit on mechanics because it's stuff I enjoy reading about, but that's not the only reason I wrote that. It's also an important lesson for Naruto (who truly graduated without knowing how to deal with genjutsu since Jiraiya taught that to him in canon).
> 
> As a brief note on Sakura, I thought that being compared to Naruto was a suitable "berserk button" for her. She prides herself on her intelligence after all, so not even Sasuke can get away with that particular comment.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys stick around for the next chapter, which will be exclusively about Team 8 and Kakashi!
> 
> Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts about the chapter!


	3. Chapter 3 - The Highest Stakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> It's been a while, right, good people of AO3...? I apologize for taking so long, but college didn't let up this past semester and this chapter was also a bitch to rewrite... I'm sorry.
> 
>  
> 
> Well. Many of you should have guessed an action scene is incoming, because of Kakashi's test. Well, in my original version of the fic, I had certain intentions… and they led to all the action being in chapter 4 instead. Mostly so I could get isolated feedback on what had been my first action scene ever, as there is quite a bit going on here. Because of length and a couple other reasons, I'm sticking to the plan. But don't think that means this chapter is devoid of important content!
> 
> Anyways, this chapter will "mostly" be about Team 8. How do you guys feel about getting an expanded, different perspective on a previous scene before we see how Hinata and her friends are doing?
> 
> Key warning: Remember how I mentioned in Chapter 1 that the Hokage can be vetoed by his council if everyone disagrees with him? This setup returns to limit the power of another character. Much like with the Hokage, I'm avoiding the "council is a hive mind" trope, but I'll only cover that council's individuality later in Chapter 20.

Even though he knew he didn't deserve to be called as such, Hiashi Hyuuga couldn't fight the fact that in his heart, he was a father. It was just impossible for him not to worry about Hinata after he noticed how oddly his daughter was behaving as they talked in the dojo.

If only he could act like a father as well and simply ask her what was wrong… it would have been so simple. However, no matter how much it killed him on the inside, he knew it was far, far too late to be the caring father that he had tried to be during Hinata's early childhood.

He just couldn't do anything. Not because of any interference from the outside world, no… the only thing that held Hiashi back was, almost always, merely himself.

However, there were situations where he absolutely  _had_ to act. He had a duty to protect his child from harm, and at least that was something he knew he could bring himself to do.

Thus, seeking more information, he posed a simple, almost random question about her day just to force a reaction. It was admirable to him that she tried to keep herself whole as she told him about her future training session with Kakashi, but it also hurt him deeply. He knew that her deep fear of  _his_ reaction was the only reason she didn't break down in front of him.

Hiashi soon realized that it would be for the best if he left the dojo right away. Perhaps it was the weight of his stern gaze, or even just his presence that affected her so negatively… it didn't matter. He could feel that him being there was causing Hinata enough distress to make her rooted to the spot out of raw nervousness. Forcing her to leave wouldn't end well, he was sure.

But just as much as he knew he had to leave, his instincts  _screamed_ at him that something was wrong with Hinata, that he needed to stay and protect her.

He soon found a compromise. It was a case where he had to break the rules.

Privacy was a concept Byakugan-users had grown to respect even before the Hyuuga clan's formation, and every person capable of the ability was educated from their early days to diligently uphold that value, but there was no other option.

He activated his eyes the moment he turned his back on Hinata, even before he closed the sliding door behind him to separate them—a meaningless barrier to the Byakugan, but it made all the difference for the girl's psyche.

The next ten minutes were grueling for them both.

It hadn't taken him more than a few seconds of watching Hinata trembling on the courtyard's floor after she ran away and collapsed for Hiashi to realize she was "just" having a panic attack. There was no danger to her life and, thus, no true need for his interference… but almost as if he were a statue guarding the dojo's door, he stood there, forcing himself to watch every single second of her suffering.

Those ten long minutes were but a part of his self-imposed punishment. To witness the consequences of how badly he failed at being a father, a husband, a clan head, and a human being—to torture himself with that knowledge.

He knew he deserved it.

It was a hard fight against his own body to stop himself from tearing down the dojo's door and hurrying to Hinata's side. To stop himself from being the father he wanted to be, and the father one part of him knew she needed him to be in that moment.

The father he knew he could never be… even if he were to try.

It had taken him almost five years after his wife's death for Hiashi to finally gather the courage to start facing reality once again, and even after that, it still took him  _months_  to realize how much damage he had caused and was _still_  causing to his daughters. That, especially with Hinata, he was doing everything wrong and failing in every step of the way.

Yet, unlike many times in the past, neither his cowardice nor his fear of not being enough were what ultimately shackled him.

He continued to watch Hinata with his Byakugan until she eventually regained her strength. Slowly, she rose to her feet, supporting herself on the wall to compensate for her shaky legs—a task that her backpack full of food only made harder. She remained there only for about a minute, until a jolt of surprise shook her body and made her break into a dash.

He had no doubt his daughter had just remembered her training appointment. What he did doubt… was if she'd have the willpower to keep forcing herself to work as a kunoichi if she knew she knew about his lie.

That lie was his newest shackle. The truth he kept hidden from Hinata… as cruel as his inertia seemed, he knew that giving in to his heart's demands was the  _cruelest_  action he could take at that moment. He was already going to hurt her enough after the duel, but betraying innocent feelings on top of it?

He deactivated his eyes, shoulders sagging with a deep sigh as he, too, walked away from the dojo.

There was a limit to how much someone's heart could endure before it broke for good. He couldn't risk to push her anymore closer to that point than he already had.

Eventually, Hiashi entered a familiar hallway among the many identical ones in his labyrinth-like home. This one's only door led to his office, from where he could hear someone's voice, thanks to the door left ajar.

"What…? Why is this place such a mess? It's almost like a tornado passed through here!"

Hiashi cringed. He didn't know who was there besides that, from the voice, it was a woman… but he knew exactly what they were seeing.

"Oh no," the person gasped. "Could it be that a thief broke in!?"

Sculpting his features into an emotionless mask that had no traces of embarrassment, Hiashi began to walk forcefully so that his footsteps would echo towards whoever was in his office as a silent warning. In response, a head peeked out from the room, warily looking around the hallway until she spotted him.

"H-Hiashi-sama?!" the woman gasped, panic flashing across her features. She promptly hopped into the hallway and bowed low. "G-Good morning, Hiashi-sama!"

To his carefully hidden surprise, it was just a maid. He acknowledged her with a single nod, not stopping until he was by the door. A mere glance inside the room confirmed what the duster she held suggested: she had been about to clean his office. The cleaning cart in the middle of the room couldn't make things more obvious.

"I… I—please forgive me, Hiashi-sama," she blurted out in a trembling tone. "but I haven't finished my duties just yet and—"

"It's of no consequence," he said with a pacifying gesture, making the maid visibly relax. "This "mess", as you put it, is my responsibility. I'll handle that, and you can come later in the day to finish what you were meant to do."

With that order, he walked past the confused maid and into his office. The layout was quite similar to the Hokage's, except the room was much smaller and there were two pairs of bookshelves beside his desk, filled to the brim with books and scrolls... that is, on a normal day.

There were various empty spaces on the bookshelves, the desk was overflowing with books and open scrolls, so much that some scrolls had fallen and rolled away on the floor along with a few piles of books that hadn't fit on the desk. Considering he had always left everything in its proper place before locking up the office, he couldn't fault the maid for reacting like she did.

"Please excuse me," she said as she quickly reached for the cart and started to push it away. Hiashi paid her no mind as he went to sit in his chair, but raised an eyebrow when the maid stopped by the doorway and lingered.

"Uh… f-forgive my curiosity," she turned around, "and perhaps my ignorance, but… shouldn't you be giving start to the breakfast ceremony right now, Hiashi-sama?"

He blinked. It dawned on him that it was practically 7 a.m and he was one hour early to work, which is why he crossed paths with this maid.

"…Yes. I should."

Inwardly, he cursed himself. His lack of sleep was catching up to him if he managed to forget his duties so easily...

His brain scrambled for a solution, leaving the maid to frown uneasily over the awkward silence for a few instants.

"I need you to do something before resuming your usual duties," he said.

The maid stood straight, attentive.

"There are extremely important matters that need my attention right now. Tell my father that he will have to begin the ceremony in my stead."

"Understood. I will inform Hiroshi-sama immediately," she replied. "Would you want me to bring a plate of food here, Hiashi-sama?"

"…No. I already had breakfast."

A lie. Despite his stomach's disagreements, he knew eating would only slow him down.

The maid bowed once again and left, closing the door on her way out.

The moment she was gone was the moment his face went from the strong, icy mask of the Hyuuga clan's leader… to his real, unguarded expression of tiredness. Of someone that barely had any energy left but still had to keep going. Of someone that had stayed up until four in the morning neck-deep into books and scrolls, desperately hoping he'd find a way out…

Of someone that prayed for a miracle that, deep down, he knew was not going to come.

Without even realizing it, Hiashi brought his hand towards the handle of one of his desk's drawers. The hand hovered over the handle, tempted,  _yearning_ … but that was as far as it went before Hiashi forced it back, allowing himself no more than a gaze full of longing and sadness at what most people would perceive just as a simple drawer.

To Hiashi… it was his treasure chest.

It had been over six years since he had last opened it, but he could still remember clearly the drawer's contents: a simple photo, and the most precious of memories.

It was an image of a beautiful woman with long, blue hair, dressed in a summer kimono of the same color and in her arms was brown-haired baby girl wrapped up in a yellow blanket, sleeping peacefully. A young girl was in front of the woman, dressed in a black-and-white kimono. Though the girl's hair was much shorter, it was of the exact same color as the woman's—one of the many physical traits the two shared.

His wife, Hikari Hyuuga, and his two daughters, Hinata and Hanabi.

Behind them was a big garden filled with flowers and plants of the most varied colors and sizes, but in front of the trio was only a patch of purple sunflowers. Those had just bloomed during that summer, thanks to the dedication and love of Hikari and Hinata had put into caring for them, and that accomplishment was what led to the pride and glee reflected in their wide, bright smiles.

Hiashi knew that even if his heart had the strength to endure the sight, he couldn't open his chest and gaze upon his treasure again, which he had once displayed proudly in a frame atop his desk.

He was unworthy. And he knew… he'd never be worthy again.

Not after the last night.

Hiashi had many happy memories of the days he spent with his wife, but the one at the forefront of his mind was far from fond. It was his last memory of Hikari, when she, on her deathbed, used her last breath and her last tears to make him promise that he would never let  _that_  happen to their daughters.

He promised it. Immediately.

At the time, he thought he'd never have to do anything to uphold it, but he had been too naïve… and now, there was nothing he could do to stop that promise from shattering.

Just like he couldn't stop his brother Hizashi from sacrificing himself for his sake... and just like he couldn't stop Hikari's disease from taking her from him, he was once again a mere spectator, able to do nothing more outside of watching idly as his family was about to be ruined.

Again.

The room was engulfed by the sound of a fist crashing down on wood.

He  _hated_  that feeling of powerlessness. He had thought there was no worse feeling… but now he knew better.

Being powerless and unable to protect his loved ones from something that was  _completely_ his own fault was a thousand times worse.

And yet, he resisted. A part of him couldn't accept that was the end.

"This is no time for self-pity," he scowled as he chastised himself, closing his eyes to force back unshed tears of frustration and grief.

Looking over the chaos of documents all over his desk, Hiashi decided to invest a minute or two into reorganizing everything before diving in once again.

"There has to be something I overlooked. This is such an unusual case… there  _has_  to be something I can use."

Unusual was truly the perfect word to describe the situation.

As he had told Hinata minutes before, she and her sister had different responsibilities towards the clan due to their different positions in the line of succession. Though the heir (or heiress, in this case) had the biggest ones, as they would be groomed to lead the clan one day, the clan head's other children still had important roles to play.

He knew the possibility of actually losing her title had never crossed Hinata's mind, just as he had a fair idea of what caused her panic attack… and that's where his lie had entered the picture.

It still didn't quite register for Hiashi. The topic of Hanabi becoming the heiress had been brought up on occasion during council meetings over the past few years as she bloomed faster than Hinata, but no conclusion had been ever reached. Though the elders in the council had some common roles, they all had their own opinions and arguments for and against that measure. The topic was simply too divisive and uncertain.

As the clan head, Hiashi's opinion was the one that held the most weight. The entire council would have to be against him to overrule his decisions in any given matter… he just had never imagined it would actually happen.

Not only did it happen, it also didn't end there.

What he had been too scared to tell Hinata was that if she lost the duel with her sister—and he knew she would—then she wouldn't just lose her title.

She'd lose her freedom.

She'd lose position as a main house member and her place in the line of succession.

Hinata would be sealed.

He would have to seal his own daughter. The mere thought made his blood turn cold.

Hikari had bound him with a promise and Hiashi couldn't deny it was a big part of why he feared this outcome so much. What she had shared with him… the possibility that Hinata could be exposed to those horrors because of the exploitability of the Caged Bird Seal was an unbearable thought. It had haunted him throughout the night, single-handedly keeping him focused on his task.

But as his search yielded no results, Hiashi's mind wandered… and it led him to another possibility that scared him far more than the moment he had seen Hinata in the arms of that diplomat from Kumo.

Because he had led Hinata to see herself as the clan's biggest failure when he was by far the rightful owner of that title… he knew it. He knew how devastating a failure of that magnitude would be to her.

He didn't know if she could withstand it.

And so Hiashi kept going. He swiftly organized his workplace and he once again went to drown himself in books and scrolls about the laws, traditions and history of the Hyuuga clan—anything that could give them a way out.

No matter how many hours of sleep or uneaten meals it would cost him… it was nigh time for him to start making up for his failures.

* * *

"At least… I made it in time," Hinata skidded to a halt, panting heavily. "Probably..."

The girl was underneath the wooden gate that served as the entrance to Training Ground 3, doubled over as she struggled to regain her breath after running nonstop all the way from the Hyuuga manor.

Once her body recovered from that storm of horrible sensations and feelings that struck her after her father left the dojo, the first thought that popped in her head had been the very last one she had before everything went wrong: that she would be late if she didn't hurry.

Hinata would have loved to fool herself into believing that her fear of upsetting her teammates and Naruto's sensei was what pushed her forward through Konoha's streets… but no. She ran solely so she could focus on something besides the thoughts that triggered her attack, forcing herself to be too busy to linger on those thoughts.

"Ha… hahaha…"

Somehow, the notion that she had been literally running away from her own mind made her laugh, almost drowning out that dark voice in her head that finally caught up to remind her that she was foolish for trying to escape. To remind her that she was pathetic and barely handled ten minutes of running... that it was no wonder everyone wanted Hanabi to be the heiress instead of a failure.

Her logical side came to her defense, comforting her with the fact that she had been drained of her energy before she even started to run. It blamed the dark voice for that—for  _everything—_ and Hinata clung to that idea desperately, bringing her peace even if just for a moment.

She didn't stay near the gate for long, unwilling to put all that running to waste by arriving late anyway. Wiping the sweat from her brow with her hand and drying it on the hem of her jacket with a pang of disgust, Hinata sluggishly began to move.

Braving a small road surrounded by trees, Hinata soon stumbled into a familiar-looking clearing. It resembled the training ground she and her team frequented, with the only meaningful difference being a trio of wooden posts in the middle of it and a stone monument to the side, shaped in a way that resembled a kunai.

Hinata also saw that she wasn't the first to arrive. Though she couldn't make out more than his silhouette from where she was, she knew that it was Shino Aburame, one of her teammates. He was always early to team meetings, so his presence was no surprise to her.

Shino had a dark bush of brown hair and, as always, his face was mostly hidden behind his dark sunglasses and the high collar of his light gray jacket. That resulted in many people struggling to read him —a group that Hinata was sad to still see herself included. Simple brown shorts rounded out his suspicious getup, contrasting it completely.

He was standing beside one of the wooden posts, staring right in her direction. Hinata knew it was because he had sent a little, harmless bug to live with her, which allowed him to detect when she was nearby. While Hinata still wasn't totally over how  _creepy_  it was to have a bug on her 24/7… nonetheless, she was glad to have Shino in her life.

With other people, she always felt lacking from a socialization standpoint, but Shino operated in a different wavelength. He gave her as much time as she needed to put her thoughts into words, and was fully comfortable with spending time in silence if they didn't have anything to say. Hinata felt as if she wasn't failing him with her struggle to find the right of words as soon as possible like she did with everyone else... it was liberating, in a way.

She had a feeling that he was glad to have someone that was actually willing to listen to him, too, given how their old classmates found him boring and weird and isolated him for it. Shino was a sharp person, and be it a long tirade about bugs, his analysis of a book or even smaller observations about the world around them, Hinata always found he had something interesting to say and gave him as much attention as she could.

To her surprise, his behavior even extended to his reactions to her mistakes during missions or training. She had thought he'd be just like her father in that regard, but Shino was usually far more preoccupied with telling her  _where_ she went wrong, and if he could, how to fix it.

Of course, his reaction wasn't always positive, such as that time when she had ruined a D-rank mission by tripping and knocking over some paint buckets all over their client's yard… but at least he didn't berate her for her mistakes. He merely told her that she was capable of better.

It made everything sting less, at least.

When she finally got close enough, Shino nodded in greeting. Hinata barely managed a little wave in return before the sharp noise of a page turning drew her attention elsewhere.

In the shade, leaning against a nearby tree, was a man dressed in a jonin uniform, reading a small orange book.  _'So this must be Kakashi-sensei…'_

Glancing between the two for a moment, Hinata silently apologized to Shino and went towards Kakashi instead. Though she made no attempt to be stealthy in her approach, Kakashi was apparently too engrossed in his reading to notice her, even when she was but a couple meters away from him.

The girl began to fidget. On one hand, she knew she should greet her new sensei and show him respect. On the other, he was clearly busy and she didn't want to be a bother and have him mad at her, so how should she capture his attention?

"Yo. You're Hinata, right?"

She bit back a squeak.

Kakashi just flipped another page, eyes still glued to his book.

"Ah… y-yes."

She should've known better to expect a jonin to be so unaware.

"Hmm. Good to know."

He didn't say another word afterwards, leaving Hinata lost in the awkward silence that arose. Gulping, she began to debate with herself on what her next move would be. In the end, just to be sure, she offered him a small, rigid bow and excused herself, her voice barely above a whisper.

She left tense, hoping Kakashi wouldn't call her back and yell at her for the being insolent, but allowed herself to relax when he didn't. He truly had been as casual as his greeting suggested.

The relief allowed her to give Shino a small smile when she finally reached him.

"Good morning, Shino-kun," she spoke while disentangling herself from her backpack. She intended to leave it on one of the wooden stumps, and the process made her notice the oddly-shaped alarm clock resting atop the central stump.

She wondered if that was related to their training somehow.

"Hinata, are you unwell? You look downcast and tired. I noticed you spent some time by the gate before entering."

The girl winced.  _'Do I look that bad…?'_

Shino was always straight to the point. While it was refreshing to know she'd never need small talk with him, it also had its drawbacks. Especially when his bugs made him aware of where she had been and for how long.

"I… I'm fine, Shino-kun," she mumbled, avoiding his gaze. "It's just… c-clan issues. Y-You know…"

Shino didn't reply immediately and just stared. It made Hinata have a sudden interest in the grass beneath her feet, feeling as if Shino was seeing right through her.

"…I understand clan matters can be taxing, but please don't overwork yourself."

An apology was already forming inside Hinata's throat, but Shino was faster.

He whipped out a book from his jacket's pocket, offering it to her. Seeing the familiar brown and red cover caused her to smile brightly, ignited by a spark of excitement.

"Ah! So you finished it already! What did you think?" she said, taking the book—one of her favorites—and turning to place it in her backpack.

The two spent the next few minutes discussing Hinata's book. It was a romance novel mixed with a fair deal of adventure, which turned out to be the more engaging aspect of the book in Shino's opinion given how much he focused on it.

He had noticed details she hadn't and Hinata felt excited about reading her book again with a new perspective, but one thing about his analysis bothered her.

"So, um," she began, "you didn't like the romance at all, Shino-kun? You didn't say a lot about that. I… I thought you said you were open to these things?" she said, dreading that she had made a mistake.

"I am, and I found it reasonable both in pacing and development."

"…But?"

"The romance led the characters to react far too recklessly in some parts, favoring emotion over logic when they shouldn't. Particularly, the infiltration of the count's citadel—which went horribly wrong— could've been avoided entirely had they waited for the army to arrive, or at least they could've waited until nightfall. And in general, the romance was… too sugary, I suppose you could say. It's not an objective flaw, but it affected my enjoyment of the story to a degree."

Hinata's brows furrowed slightly. In her opinion, that emotion, that recklessness Shino criticized made the characters more human and relatable, while all the "sugar" he spoke of had been  _just perfect_ … but, she had to respect his views. It was a subjective matter after all.

"I… I see. Well, I'll try to keep what you said in mind next time I suggest something..."

He nodded. "It was nonetheless a high-quality story. I'd ask what you thought of my book now, but Kiba and Akamaru are approaching."

"Oh," she muttered, the small word betraying her disappointment. Not at Kiba; she had been looking forward to sharing with Shino her opinion about the book he had lent her, but alas…

It occurred to her that Kiba was late, probably by a fair margin if she had to guess from how much she and Shino had talked.  _'Did something happen to him and Akamaru?'_

Soon enough, they heard a loud voice coming from the training ground's entrance.

"Hey! Don't start without us!"

From a distance, Hinata and Shino could see their missing teammate, who was dashing towards them alongside his little ninja dog, Akamaru.

He reached his teammates in only a few seconds, breathing heavily.

"Hi… guys… sorry for the wait," Kiba said, panting, and received a silent nod from Shino and a quiet "good morning" from Hinata in return.

The boy wore dark gray pants and a bulky fur jacket of the same color, with the fur on the edges of the sleeves and hood being a pure white instead. Said hood also covered his messy brown hair, but it didn't hide the red fang-shaped marks painted on his cheeks—the symbol of the Inuzuka clan.

The boy's slightly pronounced canines and slit-shaped pupils gave him a distinctive feral look that had greatly intimidated Hinata before she got to know him better and realized he was a carefree, funny person that could often make her day a little brighter with his jokes or words of encouragement when the situation called for it. Though he was a little too physical for her tastes, she felt as if Kiba was always looking out for her.

With that in mind, Hinata opened her mouth to ask him if he was alright but closed it again when she saw Kakashi leaving his tree.

"Well, well, look who's finally here," the jonin said, pocketing his book. "Kiba, was it? I'll have you know, I'm not fond of people who lack punctuality."

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei… I-I can explain though!"

In the midst of catching his breath, Kiba told them about how he would've arrived in time if not for a sandwich  _dropping from the sky_ in the middle of the street and right in front of them. Akamaru, enticed by the food, had fled from his owner and almost managed to get the sandwich for himself… but a hungry street cat stole his would-be-breakfast right beneath his nose, resulting in him angrily chasing after the cat.

Obviously, Kiba had to chase his partner down as well, which consumed a lot of time according to him. The boy sent a pissed off glare at the pup as he spoke about that last part, but Akamaru never noticed. The light-furred dog was too busy sniffing around, until his nose finally led him to Hinata's backpack.

It broke the girl's heart when he turned to her with a pitiful whine, looking at her pleadingly.

"Sorry Akamaru-kun," she whispered, crouching to his level to rub his little head. "Hang in there, okay? I promise it will be worth the wait!"

Akamaru gave a small bark and his tail began to wag, making her giggle softly.  _'So cute!'_

While she comforted Akamaru, Kiba was finishing his explanation and looked at Kakashi uneasily.

"—and he managed to eat the sandwich before I could catch him. Is… is it going to be bad for him? Kurenai-sensei said you wanted us not skip breakfast, so…"

"Maybe. I suppose it's alright for now," Kakashi answered evasively, shrugging as he inwardly added the Inuzuka's story to his 'lame and unbelievable excuses to give when I'm late' list.

He then sat on the grass.

"Alright. Now that all of you are here, I'd like to know you three a little better before our training. Tell me your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, dreams... you know, the usual."

The kids followed his lead and sat as well, but Kiba, who was sitting between his teammates, had an objection to Kakashi's proposal.

"My mom always tells me you gotta give your name before asking for other people's, so why dontcha go first, sensei?"

"Hmmm... fine. Fair enough."

In the end, his introduction boiled down to five words:

His name was Kakashi Hatake.

 _'Well, that was informative,'_  Hinata thought, feeling a mix of annoyance and worry at the man's attitude. It didn't bode well for them if he was this disinterested before the day even started.

Kakashi then motioned at Kiba for him to begin. The boy was glaring at the jonin for his shoddy introduction but dropped it in order to start his own.

"The name's Kiba Inuzuka," he declared, pointing at himself with his right thumb before using the same hand to pat his dog, who was lying on the ground right next to him. "And this little guy here is Akamaru, my ninken and partner."

Upon being called, Akamaru barked cutely at Kakashi, most likely saying "hi!" in dog speech. The puppy then jumped on his owner's lap, who, smirking, then carefully placed the dog atop of his head before continuing.

"I like my family, my friends, red meat in general, and shockingly enough... dogs! In particular Akamaru. Anyways, I really dislike cats, seafood, stuck-up jerks, those bastards from Iwa, and being bored. My dream is to be the strongest ninja of the Inuzuka clan, to protect our pack so that we never have to lose so many people like what happened in the previous war... and eventually being Hokage would be nice. My hobby is walking with Akamaru. And training, I guess," he finished with a shrug, looking nowhere as happy as when he began.

Kakashi wasn't very happy either. He remembered how the Inuzuka clan had suffered heavy casualties during the previous war, due to them being constantly needed at the frontlines to use their digging techniques to counter the defensive Earth techniques the Hidden Rock's ninja employed. He could understand somewhat how the young Inuzuka felt, having lost comrades to that same war and life in general.

 _'At least the kid's not devoting himself to revenge,'_ Kakashi thought, remembering his team's little avenger.  _'I suppose it makes sense. He is too young to have suffered directly because of the war, so his feelings most likely come from being exposed to his family's hatred and loss.'_

He stopped for a moment to think of something to say to Kiba… something his old sensei might have said to make the boy feel better… but in the end Kakashi gave up.

Like he had always told the Hokage, he just wasn't fit for that kind of job.

He then looked at the other male genin, and taking the hint, Shino began speaking in his usual neutral tone.

"I am Shino Aburame. As a member of the Aburame clan, it's obvious that I have an interest in bugs, however, I also enjoy reading in general, learning about Konoha's history and fighting skilled opponents. My hobbies are to help my parents find and research new specimen for my clan. I dislike those who kill bugs without a logical reason to do so, plants in general, forgetful people and bright lights. My goal is to meet and exceed the expectations of my parents and clan as a ninja of Konoha. My dream… is to one day breed a new sub-species of bugs that are able to replicate the poisonous effects and antibodies of the Rinkaichu, a rare and highly dangerous kind of bug, for me to make use of them in combat and bring glory to my clan with them, as a homage to a long-lost friend."

Pushing back his sunglasses, Shino went silent, taking a moment to remember his old childhood friend, Torune Aburame.

Kakashi could empathize with him. Taking a glance at the memorial stone that rested further back, he remembered a long-lost friend of his own: Obito Uchiha. Like the Aburame boy, he too struggled to bring forth the full potential of his best friend's special ability and memento, in his case, Obito's Sharingan.

The small brief silence was enough to unnerve Kiba, who noticed Kakashi was lost in thought. Frowning as he realized that he'd have to take the lead, Kiba nudged Hinata's arm with his elbow.

"Your turn, Hinata."

"Ah! Yes...! Um... s-sorry," she muttered, mistaking herself as the source of Kiba's annoyance. Her gaze met Kakashi's, who nodded at her, and taking a quick but deep breath, she began.

"My name is Hinata Hyuuga." That was as far as she went before dropping the eye contact. "I… I like to spend my time t-taking care of my mother's garden, c-cooking, pressing flowers and reading. I dislike… m-many of my clan's traditions… and, my dreams… m-my dreams are… umm…?"

A lump in her throat made her stop. It only got worse when she noticed everyone's eyes were on her, which turned continuing into an impossibility and practically forced her head to hang low in a feeble attempt to avoid their curious gazes.

"Did you… forget your own dreams?" Kakashi asked after the silence stretched for too long, bewildered.

Before Hinata had a chance to reply—not that she  _could've —_ Kiba began to laugh.

"C'mon Hinata," he patted the girl on the back, amused by how red she was. "Kakashi-sensei won't bite you, I promise!"

"If I recall correctly from our first day as a team," Shino began, drawing everyone's attention, "Hinata dreams of succeeding her father as the clan head, mainly in order to help unite the main and branch houses of her clan through the removal of the Caged Bird Seal."

"Sounds about right," Kiba said, his eyes falling on Hinata again. "I think you mentioned something about wanting to marry and have kids one day too, didn't you?"

The girl eventually answered with an affirmative noise that, if Kiba didn't have sensitive hearing, he might've missed.

 _'Not like any of that matters anymore,'_  she thought.

Kiba also didn't miss her unusually gloomy expression, one that he recognized from a few times where Hinata had done something clumsy and led them to fail a mission, or close enough.

It piqued his curiosity.

"Well," Kakashi shrugged, "if you two say so…"

Kakashi couldn't help but pity Hinata. One couldn't become a clan head without being considerably powerful for a jonin-level ninja, and the girl didn't seem to have the personality for the job. And if the little he knew about the Hyuuga clan's seal was true, she'd risk having her own kids sealed should she have some before dealing with that problem.

 _'Can't say I envy her,'_  he thought, getting up. "You seem like okay kids, maybe even a bit boring… but at least it looks like you three will be easier to handle than my own team," he confessed with a small sigh.

Kiba snickered at that. "Wouldn't be surprised if they are why his hair is so white," he whispered to Hinata, hoping for a reaction.

To his disappointment, it failed to sway her mood. She still looked as glum as before.

"I… I wonder how they are doing," she muttered, distractedly.

"Maybe you should start to worry more about yourself."

A ringing noise followed Kakashi's words, drawing Team 8's attention towards him. He had stood up and now held a pair of bells in his hand.

"I'm sure you guys have been told I was supposed to be teaching about ninjutsu to you, but… that's not the game we'll be playing today."

Confused, the three genin exchanged glances with each other while Kakashi tied the bells to his waistband.

"I have a simple test for you: get these bells from me. That's all."

From those words, Hinata immediately assumed that all she and her teammates would be something like hide-and-seek, as that sort of activity could truly test their abilities as a tracking squad.

…And then Kakashi told them that the only way to win was to come at him with the intent to kill, making her eyes become as big as saucers.

_'Kurenai-sensei said he was strong enough to become Hokage if he wanted… how are we going to fight someone like that!?'_

"The hell!?" she heard Kiba grumbling as he sprung up. "But that's not fair at all! We're only genin, remember?"

"Of course, I will be restraining myself to give you a chance."

Hinata's shoulders sagged with a relieved sigh. The test no longer felt impossible—in hindsight, it was obvious he'd hold back.

But… why did she still have a bad feeling about this?

"What is the purpose of having only two bells and both in the same place?" Shino asked as he stood up, making Hinata realize she was the only one of them still on sitting on the grass.

Blushing, she quickly scrambled to get up.

"Oh, that…? Well," Kakashi began, "it's because each person can only get a single bell. Meaning that, at best, only two of you can pass."

The clear amusement in Kakashi's sole visible eye scared Hinata, but a question tumbled out of her mouth regardless. "A-And… what if we don't?"

"You will lose your headbands. And then you'll go back to the academy for another year until you can take the genin test again. I'd usually remove those who fail from Konoha's ninja program permanently, but you three are children of clan heads so I don't expect I will be able to go that far."

Those words, delivered so nonchalantly despite their weight, made Hinata as pale as a sheet.

_'If that happens then… then our team will be disbanded!'_

Shaken by that thought, she then almost had a heart attack when Kiba swore as loud as a firecracker right by her ear.

"You can't do that to us!" he yelled, with Akamaru barking in support. "Kurenai-sensei would never let you!"

"Furthermore," Shino began, "we already were approved as genin by Kurenai-sensei after we graduated."

Kakashi regarded them with a raised eyebrow. "The Hokage himself agreed to these terms—it was a condition for me to be here in the first place. Like it or not," his voice took a harsh edge, "Kurenai can't do a thing about it. You are under  _my_ command now."

Shino didn't react to the commanding tone Kakashi chose to use, but the rebuttal rendered Kiba speechless. Perhaps sensing that his owner needed a bit of comforting, Akamaru leaped to him, and Kiba hugged the dog close to his chest.

 _'If only Naruto was this easy to shut down,'_  Kakashi thought. He then pointed to somewhere behind Team 8, making the genin turn.

"That alarm on that stump is set to 10:30 a.m. That's your deadline... so this means you guys have about 3 hours to get the bells from me. And one last thing, about lunch. Kurenai said you'd bring food with you, right Hinata?"

The girl started once she felt Kakashi's eye on her. "O-Oh, yes… um, I-I made bentos... t-they're in my bag."

"Excellent… in addition to what I just said, whoever fails my test will be strapped to those stumps while the others will have lunch right here, in this clearing. If all of you fail, then that'd be just me, my team, and Kurenai having lunch today. Any questions?"

"You're crazy…" Kiba growled, his voice dripping with disgust.

He didn't know, but that was an echo of Hinata's thoughts. The idea that her own food was going to be used as a  _torture device_  was a bitter pill to swallow and made girl's stomach twist.

"So," Kakashi continued, "the test will begin in a few seconds. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Three clones suddenly popped in front of Kakashi.

Before the trio could even realize what was going on, the chakra constructs lunged at them at a speed that was not at all restrained. With each clone having one of the genin in their arms, they used a Body Flicker, leaving only a trail of leaves where they previously stood.

"Oh well."

Now alone, Kakashi didn't bother to keep his thoughts to himself as he resumed his reading of the Toad Sage's masterpiece: Icha Icha Paradise, volume 4.

"Let's see if your kids are all that you said they are, Kurenai."

Eventually, the residual chakra from his dispelled clones returned to him, each from a different corner of the training grounds, and each carrying a different memory.

"And now, I only have to wait for the fun part..."

* * *

Disoriented by the suddenness of it all, Hinata struggled to balance herself after Kakashi's clone released her and barely managed to avoid falling on the grass.

"This is your last chance to ask me anything," the clone spoke up, watching as the girl scanned the little wooded area around them in a mix of confusion and nervousness.

Hinata was not one to question people, especially her superiors. But when she turned to face him, her next words stumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"W-Why are you doing this to us…!?"

The clone's only reaction to her distress was to raise an eyebrow. "If that was all, remember: if you can't get a bell, you're out."

He then poofed out of existence, leaving his threat to echo inside Hinata's head.

In that situation, any normal person would start to worry about their own hide, and Hinata… was no different.

For one brief moment, she feared for what would happen to her if she was stripped of her headband and demoted from her position as a genin.

The consequences of failing were clear to Hinata.

_"_ _You and your sister will duel once again. If you lose, your title of heiress will be forfeit and your responsibilities toward the clan will change accordingly with your position in the line of succession."_

...Hinata knew she  _would_ lose that duel. That wasn't even up to debate. But if, before that, she returned home with the news that she was being sent back to the academy… she also knew her father wouldn't allow that to happen.

He definitively was influential enough that he could reverse Kakashi's decision if he wanted to… but this would just become the last straw for him.

He'd transfer her title to Hanabi on the spot. There would be no point in the duel.

And there would be no second chances, for Hinata was certain he'd also remove her from the ninja program entirely. Losing her headband would be the decisive proof that investing in her future as a kunoichi was a futile endeavor, and the money the clan would waste with yet another year of her being in the academy could be more useful elsewhere.

Unlike the heiress, the clan head's other children were not obligated to become warriors for their entire lives. The clan always pushed for that, for safety reasons, but these children had a different primary duty: to marry with an important person from outside the clan and help spread the Hyuuga clan's influence around the world… through a marriage contract if necessary.

Hinata felt a tight knot in her throat and cursed herself for being such a naïve  _moron_  and believing that her childish plan would work.

Her idea had been simple in concept. It relied on how, heiress or not, she and her sister would only be allowed to marry after they turned eighteen. The difference between them in that regard was the freedom of choice, which only the heir would have. Hanabi would be married off as soon as possible, and Hinata wanted to avoid that. She wanted her sister to be able to take the reins of her own future, but how could she help her?

That's where the plan came in. If Hinata could become the clan head and execute the changes the clan  _needed_ to go through before Hanabi came of age, then Hinata could simply abdicate the position and allow her sister—the one more suited for the job—to take over before anyone forced her to marry for the sake of the clan. This would let Hanabi choose her husband freely and even stay as the clan head if she so desired.

Hinata also had some thoughts about how to avoid being married off to someone afterwards but… they didn't matter.

She should've known that the clan wouldn't stand for a weak heiress, and that she wouldn't become stronger fast enough to avoid her fate.

Her dream future was now out of reach, and failing Kakashi's test would barely change anything in her life. Except… for one thing.

Team 8 would never be the same again.

She didn't want to cut ties with them. Kurenai was like a mother to her, while Kiba and Shino were her first real friends. She had a taste of what friendship meant through Hanabi and the branch house members she interacted with most often such as the kitchen staff, but those bonds were too different.

There was no "clan" ruling over her dynamics with her team… at least, not until that moment.

Hiashi's words had caused her so much inner turmoil, but now, even if momentarily, they brought Hinata some peace. Those words allowed her to take a deep breath, forget herself, and focus on what was truly important to her at that moment:

Her teammates.

After hearing them both re-state their dreams and goals in front of Kakashi, and adding that with all that she had learned about them ever since Team 8 was formed, Hinata realized that even if she didn't have much to lose here… Kiba and Shino  _definitively_ had.

She wasn't sure if Kiba's relationship with his mom was as bad as his constant whining about her "nagging" suggested, but what she did know was that Tsume Inuzuka wasn't above physically disciplining her children when they stepped out of line. Kiba had commented that he always had gone to sleep sore and bruised whenever he had caused problems in the academy or had gotten bad scores in tests… Hinata didn't want to imagine how badly he'd be beaten if he came home bearing news of his demotion.

What would actually be worse for him was how the Inuzuka clan handled the process of teaching their special techniques. One had to prove themselves worthy to the clan's loose equivalent of the Hyuuga's council, and Hinata was sure that being forced to re-do an entire year at the academy would bring a stigma that could take years for Kiba to free himself from, especially with how shaky his performance at the academy had been.

It would not only put his dream in jeopardy, but it could even lead to his death if he entered a fight that he would've otherwise won if not for his clan denying his right to improve himself.

Shino, on the other hand, had excelled at the academy and could've been their year's top student if not for his taijutsu being mediocre compared to one Sasuke Uchiha. Regardless, his consistently high performance made him notorious among his clansmen, and with that came the expectation that he'd continue to show such promising results throughout his career.

Hinata was sure that the constant pressure she felt to meet her clan's expectations was just as heavy for Shino, if not heavier because he kept up with them. Despite his stoicism, Hinata could feel that he was proud of his accomplishments, of how his clan held him in high esteem and believed he could achieve greatness.

To have so many years of hard work spent on building that trust shattered in a single blow…

Shino didn't let his emotions show but that didn't mean he was a machine. His clan's logic-driven mindset led him to suppress his emotions—that's the impression Hinata had anyway—but a balloon could only hold so much air before bursting. Unlike with Kiba and even herself, Hinata was nowhere as sure in Shino's ability to bounce back from the shame of being deemed a failure by everyone, given how drastic the paradigm shift would be for him… and it scared her.

But still...

_'Maybe I'm overthinking this…?'_

Hinata knew she couldn't predict the future. Perhaps she was underestimating her friends or misunderstanding their situations, but the only thing she had to guide her path…

_"From this day forward, I'll be handling your training myself."_

…Were her own memories.

Day gave into night, the forest turned into walls, the infinite blue sky above her became a square of darkness that loomed outside a window.

Suddenly, she was back inside her home's dojo, facing her father. The anger in his glare was so strong she was forced to look down, making her notice her clothes had changed to what she usually wore when training indoors.

_"Your cousin Neji has recently graduated the academy as the best of his class. Our clansmen have been talking about his talents, but I hear no such praises for you, Hinata. On the contrary! When they talk about you, it's only to praise your sister for defeating you in spars. As my heiress and future leader of this clan, I cannot and will not accept the mediocre results you have shown so far! Is that understood?"_

She almost managed to stutter an affirmative, but the lights above going off distracted her, drowning the room in pure darkness until a nearby door slid open. Her neck turned in that direction, allowing her to see the courtyard, bathed in sunlight, as well as the disappearing figure of her grandfather.

One second later and she felt a hammer smashing into her torso, flooding her system with pain and sending her to crash on the dojo's floor. Her father loomed over her with an outstretched palm hovering where she had been.

_"Do you see, Hinata? Your grandfather was so disgusted by how weak you are that he couldn't even stay and watch your training until the end! He doesn't think you are worth paying attention to… and after these past few weeks, I'm starting to agree with him. Now get up! Prove me wrong!"_

Though her entire being was begging her to ignore that order, she knew she couldn't. Her body was aching all over, and Hinata struggled to rise… but her wobbling legs failed her.

A chair cushioned her fall. Stars shone in the black sky beyond the window behind her father, who sat in a chair across from her. The desk that now separated them—it was his office's, she realized—did little to make her feel shielded from him, even though Hiashi's eyes no longer burned her with his anger.

The raw disappointment they conveyed froze her soul.

_"It has been months, Hinata. Your sister has been improving by the day, but you? You are just as weak, slow, clumsy and predictable as when we began. I've had enough of your failures. I'll be requesting a private audience with Hokage-sama tomorrow; your training from now own will be handled by whatever jonin he has available. I have better things to do with my day than dealing with you."_

The way he simply went back to his paperwork, not even bothering with a direct dismissal… somehow, it hurt her more than his words.

Her feet slowly took her out of the room, but the moment she was out Hiashi's sight she broke into a run. Hallways upon hallways blurred all around her, until she was inside the dojo again, and then out in the dark courtyard.

Hinata could barely see the majestic moon that shone among the stars because of the unshed tears pooling in her eyes. She wiped them on her sleeve with a single motion, clearing her vision just in time for her to witness the moon exploding into light and fire, blinding her.

When sight next returned to her, the sun was already dominating the skies above. But she was still in the courtyard.

_"Is this truly alright with you? Hinata is from your clan's main branch."_

She blinked, confused at the voice that came from behind her, from within the dojo.

"Is that… Kurenai-sensei?"

_"I can ensure she will graduate if I teach her, but I'm not a Hyuuga. I can't help your daughter refine her unique abilities. Even for a genin there's always the risk of death... she is your heiress, isn't she?"_

She gasped.

"No… no!"

She _knew_ what memory this was.

_"Hmph. I don't care what you'll teach her as long as it's enough for her to graduate."_

Her knees betrayed her. "N-Not this!"

_"All these years that useless girl has only been wasting my time."_

She closed her eyes shut and her hands flew to cover her ears, but her attempts at protecting herself were futile. Hiashi's words pierced through the darkness, shattering her every defense.

_"The Hyuuga clan doesn't need a failure like her staining our reputation."_

"Please, s-stop…!"

_"She wasn't even able to surpass her sister who is five years younger than her. It's pathetic!"_

_"You mean, this girl?"_ Kurenai asked in a strained tone.

_"Yes… get up, Hanabi!"_

The reminder that her sister had been training with her father that day did nothing to soothe Hinata's pain. The little girl had been so full of bruises that night, and Hinata knew she was to blame… almost as if her own hands had caused those ugly, purple marks that littered her sister's body.

_"She is my hope for the future of this clan. As you can see, I cannot waste my time with Hinata any longer when my other daughter has shown so much potential."_

"Stop…!"

_"Now answer me. Are you going to accept this job or not?"_

_"…I will. Your daughter will be in good hands."_

_"Very well, Hokage-sama will inform you of the next steps. Now leave us! You're being as much of an inconvenience as Hinata herself."_

"…"

"…"

"…"

…The memory ended. It was only natural, since Hinata remembered she had waited by the dojo's door for hours so she could tend to Hanabi's bruises once they were done training. There was nothing worth remembering before that.

Now, the only sound Hinata could hear was of her own labored gasps for air. Though terrified of what she'd find next, she dared to open her eyes.

She was finally back on Training Ground 3.

This brought her relief, yet her heart still ached, beating painfully, loudly, with the reminder that in her father's eyes, she was a failure. A waste of time. Useless. An inconvenience.

That we was ashamed of her.

That he didn't love her.

That if she died, he wouldn't care—he'd probably be glad to be rid of her.

And Hinata was glad to be reminded of those memories, however painful.

Unlike when they were twisted into the nightmares that she occasionally found herself trapped in, now they only served to strengthen her resolve.

 _'I can't let this happen to them,'_ she thought, sniffing uncontrollably _. 'Kiba-kun and Shino-kun don't deserve this… this pain…'_

It didn't matter that she couldn't know for sure how their families would react if they failed. If there was a risk, no matter how small, that they'd go through something even remotely similar to what she had lived…

She  _refused_ to let that happen.

Nodding to herself, she began to think. She had a goal, but she needed a plan.

 _'I was never any good at strategy,'_  she lamented to herself.

That particular failure didn't sting much. She had always been comfortable in following someone else's lead, and Team 8 did nothing to change that habit in Hinata. Kurenai tended to give them broad orders, but if deeper planning was ever required, Hinata could always count on a certain someone.

_'If only Shino-kun were here to help me…'_

"Hinata?"

She had never regretted a stray thought so fast.

The sounds of someone walking through a bush came from her left, and as much as she didn't want to, pure instinct made her turn towards him.

"Shi… Shino-kun?" she said, speech impaired not by a stutter, but by more sniffles. "W-What are y-you doing… here?"

"…I was unsure whether to approach you or not, but whatever was happening seems to be over. The question is, what happened?"

"N… n-nothing happened," she whispered, head hung low.

"…I would appreciate if you didn't reciprocate my concern with obvious lies. Hinata, you're still crying. And before, you were…"

Shino trailed into silence, filling her heart with dread. Her hand flew up to her face and she discovered that, yes, her tears had been real.

He must have heard her voice as well…

Sniffing, Hinata hastily dried her face and gathered all her willpower, forcing herself to face Shino and the shame of being seen in such a deplorable state.

"I… I-I'm okay n-now. R-Really…"

It sounded horribly unconvincing even to her own ears.

"What happened… w-was j-just a genjutsu so... could you… please, c-can you f-forget about this?"

Shino didn't respond. Hinata's eyes landed on the grass again.

She was lying, and she was sure he knew it. Shino would have considered that possibility immediately given the scene he stumbled upon, but the bug he had sent to live with her would have told him her chakra network was untainted… and that fact was the likely source of his uncharacteristic hesitation.

The way the silence stretched reminded Hinata of their first real interactions, when that had put her on the edge. It was jarring to return to that starting point now.

"I won't forget this," Shino eventually said, "but… I will trust your judgment and end this conversation here."

Though not what she desired, the compromise—the avoided confrontation—flooded Hinata with relief. It shone through in the grateful smile she gave to Shino then, but it wasn't enough to get rid of the weariness in her expression.

It made Shino's frown deepen slightly from behind his sunglasses. Letting go was a hard, frustrating decision for him to make, but he knew he was ill-equipped to help Hinata on his own and especially with so little context to work with. He wasn't good at dealing with people, but he could see that pressing Hinata without having a fair idea of what was her problem would only backfire.

Thus, he decided to wait and watch out for new developments and clues before making any moves such as talking with Kiba or Kurenai. Instead, he contented himself with helping Hinata up by offering his hand, which she took immediately.

They had something more important to worry about regardless.

"About your question;" Shino began, "I decided to seek you out because I wanted to discuss this test that Kakashi-sensei proposed. I have a theory, but I want to hear your thoughts on the matter first."

"My thoughts…?"

Right then, Hinata realized that she had barely pondered about the challenge surrounding the test yet. Her face scrunched up in confusion as she tried to think of something meaningful to say and… luckily, something quickly came to mind: the test's most obvious aspect.

It only confused her more.

"Shino-kun, I… I don't mean to be rude, but isn't this test a competition? N-Not that I wouldn't help you!" she blurted out in a high pitched-tone, making him raise an eyebrow, "but… w-well, I don't understand why you're here."

"I see."

Instead of giving her explanations, Shino walked a short distance away from Hinata and picked up a thin branch that was lying on the grass. With it, he began to scribble something on the ground.

"As you know, I have sent a bug to live with you and Kiba. They allow me to track your position relative to each other and myself, and this is the result I found when I tried to do that after the clone released me."

Her curiosity sparked, Hinata followed and peered over his shoulder to stare at the figure he had drawn, one shaped like the letter Y.

"We started beside each other, with Kiba in the opposite direction. This becomes a "Y" formation when accounting for Kakashi-sensei, who is on the central point. I should note that Kiba was positioned much farther away from Kakashi than us, more than twice as far."

"Huh? How weird… c-could it be because Kiba-kun is faster than us when he uses his techniques?"

"I considered that as well. Could you activate your Byakugan for a moment?

Humming in agreement, Hinata started to weave a sequence of hand signs she knew by heart until her world transformed, and all the colors that once surrounded her yielded to black. The small but bright blue of hers and Shino's chakra systems shone in that darkness, easily standing out.

Shino pointed in a certain direction. "I imagine Kakashi-sensei is too far for you to detect, but he is over there. What can you see?"

"O-Oh my… there are traps everywhere!"

Disguised pitfalls, wired contraptions tied to shuriken or thick logs, hidden flash bombs… there were traps of all sizes and shapes standing right in front of Hinata. Some were even layered on top of each other, weaved in a way where dodging the first trap would trigger the second, and others even had bells lying around as bait.

"Although my scouting abilities in this scenario are inferior to yours, I found many similar arrangements of traps obstructing the woods ahead. I believe that the entire area around Kakashi-sensei is like this, as my bugs continued to detect traps in that direction while I headed here. I strongly suspect it will be impossible to approach him from any point without having to deal with traps."

A light bulb lit up above Hinata's head. "He's testing our tracking abilities, isn't he?"

"Indeed. If we aren't able to properly navigate around these traps, then we won't even have the chance to acquire a bell."

 _'Well, that explains the time limit being so generous.'_  It made sense to Hinata, considering Team 8's purpose.

"Hinata, what is your opinion of this test now?

Deactivating her Byakugan to conserve chakra, she turned to him and replayed their discussion in her mind. It made her frown. "It's almost like we are meant to reach Kakashi-sensei much sooner than Kiba-kun. Isn't that unfair?"

"That's what I thought as well. I cannot be certain without knowing what traps are ahead of Kiba, but I do know his tracking abilities are not particularly suited for detecting and avoiding most kinds of traps, unlike ours."

"Yes, but… what does this mean?"

Shino readjusted his sunglasses. "I believe this test is meant to appear competitive, but in truth, it's a cooperative test. Tell me, have you ever heard of ninja teams with less than three members?"

"Uh... no." It crossed Hinata's mind in that moment, however, that even in the academy they were almost always split into trios for group activities.

"Exactly. This becomes even more significant for a squad like ours. If you think about each of our tracking abilities, they complement each other extremely well but only with all of them available at once."

"Then… do you think we should take this test as a team instead?"

"Indeed. I believe Kiba was delayed because of how he would already need to cooperate with Akamaru to succeed. That, perhaps, would make the true objective too obvious."

Hinata began to fidget. Shino's logic was sound and compelling, but… it relied too heavily on the premise that Kakashi had lied to them. Weren't they supposed to trust in their sensei?

"Are you confident about this, Shino-kun…?"

"To be honest, no," he admitted, to Hinata's surprise. "I'm aware my theory revolves around many assumptions. However, I am certain none of us would be able to get a bell from a jonin like Kakashi-sensei on their own, even if he were to hold back."

A small gasp escaped the girl's lips. "But if we worked together, maybe…!"

"Ah, so you see the possibility as well. Then, will you work with me? I might need help to get my point across to Kiba."

Hinata began to think, but soon shook her head at her foolishness—hadn't she made a choice already?

"Let's go find Kiba-kun, then!" she said, giving him the best smile she was able to muster.

"Thank you. However, first, we need to get through those traps. I'm sure at least those near us have been made with your Byakugan in mind, so let's proceed carefully while my bugs scout the way ahead."

Nodding, Hinata reactivated her eyes and the pair left the small clearing, intent on circling around Kakashi's "territory" until they found a good angle to approach Kiba from.

That is, until they were forced to change their plan…

* * *

"That was surprising, but also underwhelming." Kakashi flipped a page from his book. "For the record, I'm not talking about what I'm reading."

Kiba growled in response. It wasn't like the boy could do much else with his body almost completely buried, with only his head above the ground.

His partner, Akamaru, hadn't fared much better. He had tried to duel Kakashi even after Kiba was out of the fight, but the jonin quickly sent the dog back to his master with a kick to the gut. And to Kiba's misfortune, that resulted in Akamaru vomiting right by his face… and he couldn't even turn his head away from that mess.

 _'What a great day to have a sensitive nose,'_ Kiba grumbled in his mind, eying Akamaru's vomit with disgust and anger. _'I swear, if I ever get my hands on whoever dropped that stupid sandwich…!'_

"And that," Kakashi continued, motioning towards the dog with his chin, "is the kind of thing that happens to those that don't follow the rules."

Kiba began to growl louder, watching helplessly as Akamaru tried to get up but failed due to the debilitating pain and the lack of air in his little lungs. No matter how much the boy tried to struggle, to do  _something_ for his partner, his limbs were completely immobilized underground. "Dammit…!"

"It'll be a while until your dog is up for digging you out of there, so, let me give you a thing to think about while you wait," Kakashi said, maintaining that same bored tone in his voice that only made Kiba angrier. "You might have some speed with either the Passing Fang or the Four Legs Technique active, sure, but that doesn't do you any good on an empty clearing. Your fighting style is too linear for someone at my level—too predictable. Find some cover and maybe you'll get better results."

"Whatever."

Kakashi flipped another page. "Then again, you knew that already, didn't you? It's for that exact purpose that your clan uses special smoke balls to ambush their foes, and you didn't. You also never aimed for the bells… and that bothers me," he admitted.

"Lucky you," Kiba muttered. "There's a  _lot_ of things bothering me right now and almost all of them are your fault one way or another."

Hearing that little rant made Kakashi shake his head. "So you just wanted to fight? How disappointing. You're definitively going back to the academy at this rate. Unless you want to break that kind of news to your mother, maybe you should try to get a bell next time."

"K-Keep them," the boy shot back. His blood froze at the thought of breaking that kind of news to his mother, leading to that stutter, but he didn't let that stop him from smirking smugly at Kakashi. "Who cares about your stupid bells anyway?"

The boy's overconfident tone made Kakashi's eye land on him. "…What makes you say that?"

"If we beat you then there's no way you'll fail us, so screw those bells!"

 _'…So close, and yet so far.'_ Kakashi sighed from behind his mask. "Even if what you think is true, you and Akamaru aren't beating me anytime soon."

Somehow, Kiba's grin only grew at the taunt.

"Me and Akamaru? Yeah, probably not."

It made Kakashi raise an eyebrow. However, as he noticed in that moment that Akamaru was starting to recover, he stopped himself from sating his curiosity again.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be going."

"Wait, what?"

"You didn't think I was going to stay here all day long, right? That'd just be too easy," Kakashi said light-heartedly, going back to his book. "Each time one of you tries and fails to get the bells, I'll change location. If either of your friends gets here before Akamaru digs you out, feel free to tell them that if you want."

"That won't be necessary."

Calmly, Kakashi turned around to see the two missing members of Team 8 walking out of the woods. He felt Shino's eyes trained on him despite the sunglasses…but Hinata, who oddly enough was cradling a small log in her arms, was looking at something else entirely. Her face did nothing to hide her worry, and neither did her voice.

"Kiba-kun, Akamaru-kun! A-Are you alright…?"

"Don't worry, we're fine! Listen, forget about the bells, we just—!"

"Interesting," Kakashi interrupted, closing his book. He realized two things in that moment: that Kiba's use of "we" earlier referred to Team 8 and not just him and Akamaru… and, that the two newcomers came from the direction his clone had taken Hinata to.

He decided to stir the pot a bit more.

"That was a smart move, Shino, to team up with Hinata to take the bells from me. Her abilities do complement yours much better than Kiba's after all… it would be much more convenient to have Kiba be the one who fails, right?"

Even though his words made Kiba gasp and Hinata's expression shift from worry to panic—did Shino fool her? Was Kiba thinking  _she_ hadbetrayed him?—the Aburame didn't take the bait and continued to stare him down.

"...So my suspicions were correct. This test was carefully constructed to pit us against each other, but the objective is to have  _all_ of us working together to retrieve the bells. You are only trying to fool us. Isn't that right?"

"…"

Kakashi didn't answer the question.

The growing tension in Training Ground 3 made Hinata's heart fill with dread as it began to beat faster and faster. It didn't help that she noticed the corner of Kakashi eye turning up, almost as if he was smiling… as if they had been caught in his trap.

Her anxiety overcame her shyness. "A-Are we… w-wrong?"

"…I gave all the instructions you truly needed at the very beginning. If that's what you think, sure, go for it," Kakashi shrugged. "It's not my headband on the line anyway. Just remember that you don't have all day," he pointed at the nearby wooden posts, or more specifically, the clock atop one of them.

One second later, while the genin were looking away, he vanished in a pile of leaves.

She clutched the log closer to her chest.  _'Could it be that we really were mistaken…?'_

"Hinata, we need to assist Kiba," Shino told her, dispelling her thoughts.

"Oh, r-right!"

The two hurried towards their trapped teammate. Akamaru had already recovered and was busily trying to unbury his master's arms, and said master was cursing Kakashi under his breath, only stopping when his friends got close enough.

"What's up with that log, Hinata?"

It was Shino who answered instead, as the two crouched to help Akamaru. "Once you can move your arms, you can use a Substitution with this log to escape. We had a more elaborate plan involving this, but it ended up being unnecessary since Kakashi-sensei left and won't be here to hinder us."

Kiba whistled. "Nice thinking."

Soon enough, the Inuzuka was free to stretch his limbs and walk once again. "Man, that sucked! Thanks, guys," he beamed at his teammates.

Hinata smiled right back. "I'm glad you're okay Kiba-kun. And, um… I-I was wondering, why were you buried like that?"

"Eh," he shrugged, "I got caught by an Earth technique. Headhunter Jutsu, or something like that."

Shino scowled at that. "Kiba, he is a jonin. You couldn't possibly defeat him by yourself even if he held back. Why did you engage him alone?"

Kiba crossed his arms. "I wasn't alone, I had Akamaru with me."

The little dog barked in agreement by Kiba's feet, but Shino was unfazed. "That doesn't invalidate my point. This was reckless; you should have waited for us."

The accusation made Kiba scowl as well. "Look, I'm not dumb, okay? I was just trying to get a feel for his fighting style and such before you guys got here. I could tell you two weren't close by when I reached him," he explained, tapping his nose.

"Still—"

"Shino-kun, p-please," Hinata moved between the two boys. "N-Nothing happened to Kiba-kun… so isn't this okay?"

"…I suppose," he relented. "Nonetheless, I'm curious about how you reached him faster than us when my bugs told me you started out much farther from Kakashi than us. Didn't you have to deal with traps as well?"

"Hah, the traps?" Kiba smirked, his mood reversing completely. "I noticed some trees were rigged and such, so I avoided them all easily by going underground! It cost a fair bit of chakra but saved me a lot of trouble. Fair trade, I'd say."

"We reunited sooner than we would be able to otherwise, so I agree with you," Shino nodded. "There are still a few hours on the clock before our time is up, so let's use this opportunity to plan for the battle ahead."

Team 8 spent the next few minutes on the grass, discussing Kiba's findings and making theories and strategies.

Or that's what Hinata would have liked to say. In truth, she barely contributed to the discussion beyond keeping her Byakugan active just in case Kakashi decided to ambush them.

It only made everything more obvious to her.

_'I'm really the weakest link here… Kakashi-sensei was completely wrong. Maybe my eyes have some value, but Shino-kun and Kiba-kun would be better off with each other than just with me. They are already smarter and stronger anyways…'_

"Hey, Hinata!"

Somehow, she managed to stop a shriek from escaping her mouth, but the surprise was enough that she completely dropped her Byakugan.

Her vision normalizing, she saw Kiba staring at her with concerned eyes.

"What's wrong with you today? You're looking so down… did something happen?"

"Clan issues, perhaps?" Shino prodded.

Hinata was unable to look at them.

"You know," Kiba continued, his tone softening, "if something's bothering you, you can talk to us. Maybe we can help, but if we don't at least you can get it off your chest or something…? Friends are for that kind of stuff!"

Hinata smiled, touched by Kiba's offer. She wanted to thank him, but knowing he expected an answer made her too nervous to say anything coherent.

Her brain worked hard to find an acceptable excuse, but… to her surprise, her eyes were what found her way out.

"It's just… I'm k-kinda hungry…"

Understanding flashed across Kiba's face and he glanced at Hinata's backpack that was in the post beside the clock. "Oh, that's right! You made our lunch today again, didn't you? And on an empty stomach, even… ouch."

She nodded. It wasn't a lie, her stomach  _was_  bothering her. But… they didn't need to know there were more pressing matters on her mind.

Right?

"And about that," Kiba continued, "I wanted to thank you for doing that for us today, Hinata."

The confusion on her face must have been obvious, as he quickly elaborated.

"You see, I tried to track down Kakashi-sensei's smell earlier but it's all over this place! And for some reason this place also smells like dogs too… so I had no idea where to go until I smelled your food, and that's how I got here. So thanks, hehe!"

That precious, rare sensation of being useful to someone else warmed Hinata's heart enough that she giggled in response. "I'm glad I could help you, Kiba-kun."

"And I gotta say, what a smell!" Kiba licked his lips, a dreamy expression on his face. "Really looking forward to lunch today…"

"While I admit that I'm also feeling the effects of not having breakfast," Shino spoke up, "I will remind you both that we will not eat anything unless we pass this test."

"Ugh," Kiba groaned. "That's just stupid… but yeah, back to work. What were you saying anyways, man?"

"I wanted to know for how long your smoke balls last and how many you have. They will be key for our strategies to work."

"Sure, let's see…"

As Kiba stopped to think, Hinata's mind once again began to wander.

Even though Kiba had quickly agreed with Shino once they explained everything to him, Hinata couldn't help but doubt it all.  _'Why would Kakashi-sensei insist on this lie? What if we are wrong and the test really is a competition… or maybe something else entirely?'_

It frustrated her, because no other option came to mind and she always returned to the same theory that they should've been taking Kakashi's words at face value. She could've brought it up to Shino and Kiba, sure, but she lacked the courage… she had a feeling they'd think her silly and ignore her, or even scold her. Or something. Whatever it was, she couldn't see a positive reaction to her words, assuming she actually managed to convey her fears properly.

And so Hinata kept quiet and tried to clear her head to focus on their little strategy meeting.

There wasn't much else she could do but cooperate with them. If Shino was right, then she just had to follow their plan and everything would work out… but if he was wrong…

_'I'll need to keep an eye for a chance to create an opening for them…'_

She couldn't risk their futures by assuming Shino was correct. She couldn't let them become a failure like herself. If it would cost her headband to ensure they would avoid that fate…

Hinata knew it was a price worth paying. She had already sacrificed far more for someone else before, and compared to that…?

This would be nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe my decision to leave the fight to the next chapter is now justified, no?
> 
> My big goal here was to show the bonds between Hinata and her teammates. They care about her, yes… but it's not that deep yet, since they haven't been together for long. Still, Hinata's loneliness and selflessness ended up joining forces in this situation and lead to some rather unhealthy decision-making on her part. This is fully intentional.
> 
> The other big goal was to provide more Hyuuga family backstory and more of what made Hinata the person she is right now. There's a huge dissonance between how Hiashi is portrayed in his scenes and elsewhere in the story so far… their relationship is full of complex nuances. For now, this was just a taste of what's to come. I'm sure it has left many of you confused about what's wrong with Hiashi (and why Hinata didn't think she would be sealed), but you'll have to wait until Hinata's return from the Land of Waves for more on that. This includes the reason I made the scene between Kurenai and Hiashi so much heavier than the canon version—though I can say the part that surely affected Hinata the most is unchanged, which is Hiashi's core reaction to the possibility of Hinata being killed.
> 
> I guarantee it will be worth the wait! Chapter 20 is a chapter I'm extremely proud of! But for something that isn't so far away… Next up, Kakashi's fight with Team 8! Just like Hiashi was a guest for this chapter, there's a special someone making an unexpected appearance next time, but in Kurenai/Team 7's side of the day instead, which is the chapter's second half. Look forward to it!
> 
> Lastly, huge thanks to DryBonesKing, author of the wonderful and amazing naruhina fic "True Potential", for letting me borrow a small plot point for this chapter and for an arc way later on...
> 
> Well, that's it! Please, don't forget to share your thoughts with me…! Reviews/comments are important, no matter the chapter!
> 
> It really kills one's motivation when the only answer to months of hard work is Silence, you know.


End file.
